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THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF MUSIC

THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF CANADIAN JAZZ CLARINETIST PHIL NIMMONS

By

DANIEL HASZNOS

A treatise submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Music

Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2011

Daniel Hasznos defended this treatise on November 3, 2011.

The members of the supervisory committee were:

Frank Kowalsky Professor Directing Treatise

Richard Clary University Representative

Deborah Bish Committee Member

Eric Ohlsson Committee Member

The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the treatise has been approved in accordance with university requirements.

ii

I would like to dedicate this treatise to my family for the love and support they have provided me.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES...... vi

ABSTRACT...... vii

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

CHAPTER 1 BIOGRAPHICAL OVERVIEW...... 3

The Early Years ...... 3

Vancouver and the University of ...... 5

New York ...... 6

Return to ...... 7

CHAPTER 2 THE CLARINETIST ...... 10

Early Inspirations ...... 10

University of British Columbia Years ...... 13

The Juilliard School ...... 14

The Beginnings of Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine & Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six ...... 15

Recollection of Interesting Performances ...... 21

CHAPTER 3 RECORDINGS ...... 23

First Recordings ...... 23

Recordings in the 1970s ...... 24

Late Recordings ...... 26

CHAPTER 4 THE EDUCATOR ...... 30

Teaching Philosophy ...... 30

iv

Advanced School of Contemporary Music ...... 32

The Banff Centre for the Arts ...... 33

Chamber Music and All That Jazz ...... 35

Courtenay Summer Music Camp ...... 36

University of ...... 37

Other Teaching Experiences ...... 39

CHAPTER 5 THE COMPOSER...... 41

Early Experiences in Composition ...... 41

Formal Lessons in Composition ...... 42

First Major Compositions ...... 43

The 1970s ...... 46

The Late 1980s ...... 49

Compositions in the Later Years ...... 50

James Campbell and Works for ...... 52

Music for the Cinema ...... 55

Compositional Approach ...... 55

CONCLUSION ...... 57

APPENDIX A PUBLISHED COMPOSITIONS...... 58

APPENDIX B DISCOGRAPHY...... 62

REFERENCES...... 63

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...... 66

v

LIST OF FIGURES

1. Phil Nimmons on the far left with his neighborhood band in 1938...... 4

2. The original Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine with a few extra musicians in the mid-1960s before their tour

to Cypress ...... 17

3. Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six at the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival in 2003...... 20

4. and Phil Nimmons in 1974...... 34

5. Phil Nimmons performing at Humber College in Toronto in the late 1990s...... 57

*PHOTOS PROVIDED BY PHIL NIMMONS

vi

ABSTRACT

This treatise will focus on the life and music of Canadian jazz clarinetist Phil Nimmons. It will introduce Canadian and non-Canadian musicians to Phil Nimmons‘ accomplishments as a jazz performer, composer, and pedagogue. Phil Nimmons has been an active member of the Canadian music scene since the late 1930s. He has contributed to the evolution of the Canadian jazz scene, is recognized as being one of Canada‘s great composers, and a pedagogue who helped to develop jazz education in Canada. As a composer, Nimmons has written over 400 classical and jazz compositions for stage, television, radio, theater and film, in addition to hundreds of jazz orchestrations. As a performer, Nimmons has been credited for his significant contribution to the cultural life of Canada for being largely responsible for bringing jazz into the mainstream through radio performances, concerts, workshops and the classroom. As an educator, Nimmons was a founding member of the Advanced School of Contemporary Music (ASCM). He was the first Artistic Director of the jazz program at the Banff Centre for the Arts, and influential in the inauguration of the Jazz program at the , of which he is Director Emeritus and has taught at the Faculty of Music for over 30 years.

vii

INTRODUCTION

Phil Nimmons has been labelled the ―Dean of Canadian Jazz.‖1 He has been cited for his significant contribution to the cultural life of Canada by bringing jazz into the mainstream of Canadian music through radio performances, concerts, workshops and the classroom. Little has been written about Phil Nimmons aside from newspaper and journal articles, or short biographical sketches found in media releases. This treatise, based almost entirely on personal interviews, will provide a resource for Canadian and American clarinetists to learn more about this important musician. Nimmons has been an active member of the Canadian music scene since the late 1930s, and has also been a major contributor to the evolution of the Canadian jazz scene. Nimmons is acknowledged as being one of Canada‘s notable composers, and for contributing to the development of jazz education in Canada. A pioneer in the field of jazz education in Canada, Phil Nimmons in partnership with Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, founded the Advanced School of Contemporary Music which led to the founding of the Banff Centre for the Arts Jazz Program. Nimmons went on to create the jazz program at the University of Toronto which is now one of Canada‘s leading jazz programs. As a bandleader, Nimmons established Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine and Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six, performing on radio and television shows across Canada, bringing jazz into the forefront nationwide. Nimmons also has twelve recordings to his credit that feature both his jazz and classical compositions. As a composer, his compositions and arrangements in both the jazz and classical idioms include works for radio, television, and film. Some of his most notable works include his arrangements for the television series Anne of Green Gables, his album Mary Poppins Swings, as well as over 100 original compositions including the Atlantic Suite

1 Geoff Chapman, ―March tribute will honour Nimmons: Sounds of Toronto also features Time Warp, Kollage,‖ The Toronto Star, July 30, 2002. 1 for which he was the recipient of the first (Canadian version of the Grammy Award) in the Jazz category. In 1993 Nimmons was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, awarded by The Governor General of Canada. This is the highest Canadian honor for lifetime achievement, dedication to the community, and service to the nation.

2

CHAPTER 1

BIOGRAPHICAL OVERVIEW

The Early Years

Phil Nimmons was born on June 3, 1923, in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. Nimmons was the middle child of three; he had an older sister, Jayne, who was involved in musical theater and later graduated from the University of British Columbia, and a younger sister, Arlene, who was very fond of the piano at an early age and later pursued a career as a concert pianist. His father was a dentist who also played the violin, and he would often play in pit orchestras in movie theaters before soundtracks were invented. His mother was an amateur pianist who was very fond of the ragtime style. As Nimmons recalled, ―If you played a rag, my mother would start to dance right away.‖2 The Nimmons home was a very musical household. Nimmons had his earliest lessons on the piano around the age of five or six, taking them from a nun at a nearby convent. Once the family relocated to in 1930, Nimmons began piano and theory lessons with Don McAlpine. These lessons did not last very long as Nimmons‘ talents soon surpassed those of his mentor, forcing him to become his own teacher. At the age of twelve, a broadcast of a performance captivated the young Nimmons and he instantly decided that the clarinet was what he wanted to pursue. An agreement was made with his father that once he saved up some money, his father would match the sum in order to help him purchase his first clarinet. Selling Liberty Magazines at five cents each, Nimmons was able to save thirty dollars, which his father matched. He was then able to purchase his very first instrument, a Rampone clarinet.3 The only clarinet lessons Nimmons received at this young age were from a tugboat captain who had been a patient of Nimmons‘ father. In exchange for dental work,

2 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 15, 2010.

3 A special feature of this clarinet was the register key, which wrapped around to the front of the instrument.

3 the captain gave the young Nimmons two clarinet lessons, which would be the only two he received while living in Vancouver. As with piano and theory, Nimmons taught himself the clarinet. The Nimmons family owned a whole library of incidental music published by Schirmer’s. The members of the family would play off-Broadway musical comedies together at home, with Arlene on the piano, their father playing the violin, and Phil on the clarinet. The three of them would play the orchestral parts in a trio setting. Nimmons remembered, ―My Dad would stand over me and if I wasn‘t doing the right time, the bow would come down on my hands. ‗Get it together, Phil!‘‖ In the following years of his youth, Nimmons formed a small neighborhood band with musicians his own age, which brought together an odd mixture of instruments. The band had a violin, piano, trumpet, and trombone, and was led by Nimmons on the clarinet. Nimmons would go out and purchase 78 rpm recordings of bands like the Orchestra, the Benny Goodman Orchestra, Tommy Dorsey‘s band, and many others. Nimmons then took on the task of transcribing the melodies from the records and wrote them for the members of the band to play in unison.4 That brought a great amount of joy to the group—it was as if they had ―died and gone to heaven!‖ recalled Nimmons. The radio was also a great means of contact with the rich sounds of jazz, produced by the great artists of the day.

Fig. 1. Phil Nimmons on the far left with his neighborhood band in 1938.

4 Greg Gallagher, ―Phil Nimmons,‖ The Music Scene, July-August, 1976, 17. 4

The group continued to grow and improve, and in 1938 they decided to join a local music competition with other groups from the surrounding high schools in the Vancouver area. The competition took place at the Alma Ballroom Dance Hall, judged by locally established professional musicians. Nimmons‘ group did not win the competition, but they benefited greatly from the experience as it gave them the opportunity to meet other young musicians who loved doing the same thing as they did, which was playing jazz.

Vancouver and the University of British Columbia

In 1940, Nimmons began, under his father‘s insistence, to explore the field of medicine and prepared for pre-med studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC). During his time at UBC, Nimmons continued to pursue his love of music by playing clarinet with the Ray Norris Quintet, as well as playing with the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra. Nimmons also began developing his compositional skills by writing dramatic music for radio plays for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). During his third year at UBC, Nimmons had to make a decision on whether to pursue a career in medicine or music. Until that point in the year he had been achieving only a 50% average in his courses, whereas in order to continue into medical school a 75% average grade was required. However, after receiving firm orders from his father to improve his academic record, Nimmons succeeded by obtaining a 75% average by the end of the year. During this time, World War II was going on and young Canadian boys were required to join the Canadian Officers Training Corps and train for six hours a week. During one of these training excursions, Nimmons suffered a foot injury and was hospitalized for nine days, causing him to miss his final exams at UBC. He had to attend summer school to take make-up courses. This delay allowed him time to think about his choices, and he made a firm decision to pursue music instead of medicine. Nimmons‘ father was not pleased with his son‘s decision, however, and he insisted that Nimmons

5 finish his schooling and graduate—which he did, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1944. Despite his achievement, Nimmons‘ father was still not happy about his son‘s choice to pursue music, but other members of the family were very supportive of his decision. By this time, Nimmons was developing a reputation in the Vancouver music scene. While playing with the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra, he met a young conductor from New York by the name of Fred Prausnitz, who had visited the orchestra frequently as a guest conductor. Being familiar with Nimmons‘ work on the clarinet as well as with his compositions, Prausnitz suggested that he attend the Juilliard School to further develop his musical talents. A short while later, another young conductor from New York came to guest conduct the orchestra. Unbeknownst to Nimmons, some of his friends had secretly obtained copies of his music and showed them to the young guest conductor, who was so pleased with Nimmons‘ work that he, along with Fred Prausnitz, wrote recommendations for Nimmons to attend Juilliard. The name of this young conductor was Leonard Bernstein.

New York

In the fall of 1945, Phil Nimmons headed to New York to begin his studies at the Juilliard School of Music. Upon his arrival, he was informed that he would not be admitted into the composition program because he did not have any prior formal training, even though he had professional experience with writing and arranging. Instead, he was admitted into clarinet performance, which allowed him—finally—to take formal clarinet lessons for the first time. Nimmons spent the following three years studying clarinet under the guidance of Arthur Christmann. During his second and third years, he received a scholarship which allowed him to immerse himself in his studies without having to deal with the burden of trying to make ends meet, as all his expenses were paid for with a $100-per-month stipend.

6

Return to Canada

In the fall of 1948, Nimmons entered the Senior School at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He enrolled in the composition program where he studied with Arnold Walter, and he also studied harmony with Richard Johnston. Although the harmony course was a three-year program, Nimmons managed to condense it into one year by studying privately with Johnston. During this time, Nimmons was reunited with the CBC in Toronto by performing as a studio musician. He also wrote for radio and dramatic shows, which he continued while living in Vancouver during the summers. By this time, the Ray Norris Quintet had made the move to Toronto where Phil rejoined them as a regular member. In 1951, Nimmons teamed up with eight other notable Canadian composers to form the Canadian League of Composers. Its members included the champion of Canadian music, , who was the first Canadian ever to write music using the 12-tone method, along with Sam Dolin, , Lou Applebaum, , , Andy Twa, and Phil Nimmons. While studying at the Conservatory, Nimmons met a young piano student named Noreen Spencer. Noreen was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on October 30, 1931. Her parents were originally from Canada and had spent some time in Florida. They eventually migrated to Wallaceburg, Ontario, before finally settling in Huntsville, Ontario, located about two and a half hours north of Toronto. Noreen played the piano, performed frequently in the Huntsville area, and was a regular performer at a big summer spa called the Bigwin Inn, which was only reachable by boat. In 1948 Noreen moved to Toronto to attend the Royal Conservatory of Music in Piano Performance where she studied under Alberto Guerrero, who is known for also having taught . Phil Nimmons and Noreen Spencer were married on July 5, 1950, and over the years the couple had three children: Holly, Carey, and Spencer. Their marriage lasted for fifty-two years until her passing in 2002. Following his tenure at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Nimmons continued to work for the CBC as a studio musician, playing and writing for musical shows, radio plays, and variety shows. Through the 1950s and into the 1960s, Nimmons continued his role as a member of the Ray Norris Quintet and played in studio orchestras as well. By

7 working for the CBC, Nimmons received exposure to other great musicians playing in the same style, and this enabled him to form his own ensemble. Nimmons had soon assembled ten musicians; they would get together in various homes where they played Nimmons‘ compositions. In 1953, the group was officially formed and was known as the Phil Nimmons Group, which later became known as Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine—and subsequently, once the group evolved, Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six. Parallel to these events, Harry Freedman, a very close friend and colleague (and a well-known Canadian composer himself), introduced Nimmons to the great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, when Nimmons and Freedman had gone to hear Peterson perform at the Colonial Tavern in Toronto in 1950. Nimmons and Peterson became close friends- Peterson would stay with Nimmons and his family in their home on Shrewsbury Square during his visits to Toronto. During the 1960s, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, and Phil Nimmons collaborated in establishing the Advanced School for Contemporary Music. Peterson‘s Trio and Nimmons would conduct master classes and give private lessons to students who had traveled from different parts of the world to study with these masters. The school lasted for five years before finally folding due to Peterson‘s busy performance schedule. A strong desire to play for live audiences dominated the next chapter of Nimmons‘ career. Around 1971, Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six ventured into schools to play for students—these performances came to be known as Jazz in the School. The band played during assemblies and, over time, rehearsals for the band shifted from the rehearsal studio at the CBC to the schools; these sessions were recorded and aired on CBC radio.5 The experience of playing in schools caused a ripple effect for Nimmons‘ teaching career. In 1973, he received a phone call from the University of Toronto requesting that he take over as director of the university‘s jazz band. In the early stages this required only one rehearsal a week; eventually the program grew to the point where two bands had to be established. Over these years, as the program grew, Nimmons‘ role

5 CBC Radio, ―Nimmons ―N‖ Nine Plus Six: Jazz is the Thing at CBC Radio School Concerts,‖ February 2, 1971.

8 at the University of Toronto increased and he began to teach orchestration, jazz education, jazz history, jazz composition, and improvisation. Canada has officially recognized Nimmons‘ contribution to the cultural life of the country. He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada on April 13, 1994, and received the Order of Canada seven days later on April 20.6 On January 11, 2001, Nimmons was inducted into the International Jazz Educator‘s Hall of Fame in by the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) for his dedication to jazz and jazz education, becoming the very first Canadian to receive this honor.7 In November of 2005, Nimmons received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN). In the late 2000s, Nimmons was recognized for his contribution to the jazz scene by becoming the recipient of several awards. On April 10, 2006, Nimmons was awarded the CJRT Jazz FM 91 Artist of Distinction by Toronto‘s jazz radio station. In 2008, Nimmons was awarded the Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Award, as well as The Toronto Musicians‘ Association Lifetime Achievement Award.8 Currently Phil Nimmons frequently performs with a former student of his, 35- year-old pianist David Braid, in the group known as Nimmons ‗N‘ Braid. Their performances consist strictly of improvisations.

6 Phil Nimmons, Curriculum Vitae, January 2010. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, Chalmers House.

7 Geoff Chapman, ―Bandleader Gets His Due: Veteran jazz musician Phil Nimmons Scores World Honour,‖ The Toronto Star, March 3, 2001, J2.

8 Ibid.

9

CHAPTER 2

THE CLARINETIST

Early Inspirations

Listening to radio broadcasts and recordings of great band leaders such as Count Basie, , Artie Shaw, and proved to be a major influence on the young Phil Nimmons, as he was beginning to develop a musical sense that would fuel his creative endeavours. It was the sound of Benny Goodman that particularly resonated with the young clarinetist. He recalled what he heard: ―I preferred Benny Goodman‘s sound over Artie Shaw‘s, who played with more of a breathy quality.‖9 Other clarinet players that influenced Nimmons with their recordings were Jimmy Hamilton, playing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra; Rudy Rutherford, who was with the Lionel Hampton Band; and Johnny Mince, the clarinet player with Tommy Dorsey. At this early stage in his life, it was the stylistic influence of these clarinetists to which Nimmons related the most, along with Goodman‘s: ―Benny had great time and tremendous technique, that I aspired to.‖10 Playing with his peers provided an artistic outlet for Nimmons. He remembers having a very good friend named Irving Galloway, who played trombone. Irving also owned a drum kit which happened to be set up in his room next to a record player. The boys would play records of Tommy Dorsey or Count Basie while taking turns playing the drums, and imagining themselves playing on stage with their idols. Nimmons recalls a particularly memorable experience in 1936 when Irving‘s father was invited to attend a convention at the World Exposition in San Francisco. Nimmons and Irving accompanied Mr. Galloway to the Exposition where Benny Goodman‘s Band was scheduled to perform. After one of their concerts, once the band had finished playing its first set, the band members went down to the closest hamburger

9Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 28, 2010.

10 Ibid.

10 stand where the young Phil Nimmons was waiting to meet his idol. Nimmons walked up to Goodman and said, ―Hello, Mr. Goodman! I play the clarinet.‖ All Goodman said in reply was, ―yeah, kid, great.‖ As small a gesture as that was, the memory has stayed with Nimmons to this day.11 Back in Vancouver, as in many other cities at the time, famous artists and their bands came to perform at dances that took place in movie theaters. Musicians like Jimmie Lunsford, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Count Basie, and even Benny Goodman all made stops in Vancouver to showcase their music. They played between movies at an old theater called the Beacon, which no longer exists. They would go up on stage, play a half-hour show, and while the movie was showing they would take breaks backstage. This was an opportunity that Nimmons could not pass up: the opportunity to interact first- hand with these musicians. In this way, Nimmons says, ―We had contact with these people that we really dug.‖12 He had a similar experience at a local music store in Vancouver called Kelly‘s. On the second floor was a miniature theater complex. Every Saturday afternoon it opened its doors to professionals to jam for the sake of pure enjoyment. Attendance was free and anyone was able to join and play. Nimmons often found himself there, spending two or three hours listening and absorbing what he was hearing. ―When you had felt that you had enough talent, you could sit in. You were hearing professionals and being able to chat and talk to them. Those things were quite important as far as the educational process is concerned because anything I was learning, I was doing it in the so-called trenches just by doing.‖13 When Lionel Hampton‘s Band came through in 1939, Nimmons went to hear them play. Following the performance, some members of the band went to jam, which Nimmons was determined to be a part of. He met a 17-year-old trumpet player by the name of Joe Wilder, who was a member of Hampton‘s band. Wilder‘s playing influenced Nimmons‘ playing: ―His style of playing, I think, rubbed off on me, because he played a

11 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 15, 2010.

12 Ibid.

13 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 28, 2010.

11 lot like Art Farmer, and vice versa. Very facile and quite lyrical.‖14 Hampton was so impressed with Phil‘s playing that he asked him to join his band, an offer which Nimmons declined by replying, ―Oh no, I am going into medicine.‖ What did transpire out of the whole experience was a lifelong friendship with Joe. ―Whenever someone went to New York, I would tell them if they see Joe Wilder, say hello for me. And Joe would say if you go to Toronto, say hello to Phil for me.‖ The two continued their back-and- forth greetings for forty years. In 2001 Nimmons took a trip to New York to be inducted into the International Association of Jazz Educators Hall of Fame. The Smithsonian Band was performing under the direction of David Baker, and Wilder was playing trumpet in the band. Once the band finished playing and had gotten off the stand, both Nimmons and Wilder caught a glance of one another, and as they began walking towards each other they both broke into tears. They hadn‘t seen each other in sixty years, but their musical souls had managed to remain connected. They have since renewed their friendship and maintain contact via telephone. Around the same time, at the conclusion of Nimmons‘ studies at Lord Byng High School in Vancouver, he had begun working with the CBC, getting experience in the classical idiom by playing with the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra, conducted by John Avison. Nimmons played second clarinet beside John Arnott, who was playing first clarinet at the time, and it was with Arnott‘s example that helped Nimmons to learn his way around the clarinet. Playing with the orchestra led to playing in a woodwind quintet with strings and a rhythm section, where Nimmons became the ―jazzer‖ in the group. Nimmons also joined a small jazz group called the Ray Norris Quintet, led by guitarist Ray Norris, for whom he also wrote some charts. The ensemble consisted of a guitar, clarinet, accordion, bass, and drums. At that time, the accordion was quite a popular instrument due to the efforts of Art van Damme in Chicago, who regularly played accordion with clarinet players.

14 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 15, 2010.

12

University of British Columbia Years

In 1940, Nimmons began his studies in pre-med at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He found it challenging to juggle both school and a busy performing schedule. He was playing with the CBC Chamber Orchestra and with the Ray Norris Quintet, and took various dance jobs on weekends—all while being enrolled in the pre- med program at UBC. At that time, Stan Patton was a band leader in the Vancouver area. His band had many engagements playing dance jobs at various venues. Nimmons joined Patton‘s band not only as clarinetist, but also as saxophonist; Nimmons had purchased an old Conn silver alto saxophone—an instrument with a tuning barrel—that he used to play at dances. Nimmons, however, was not fond the saxophone. ―That was something most of the musicians did, what we called casuals, and did dance jobs on weekends. I never really related to the saxophone because I never got a good sound on it.‖15 The band played stock charts, which were small, letterhead-sized scores. The charts were available for purchase for 25 cents in those days, which enabled them to be used by bands with anywhere from five people to a demanding personnel of thirty, as they were scored to allow for such variety.16 During the same time, while at university, Nimmons met two people who shared his passion for jazz. Together they formed a trio consisting of the clarinet, guitar, and piano. Doug Parker, who played piano, was a psychology major, and eventually graduated as a psychologist, while Chester Cotter played the guitar, an agriculture major, who graduated with a degree in forestry. Cotter‘s style resembled Charlie Christian‘s, and Parker played in a style similar to that of players like Jess Stacy and Teddy Wilson. Through their time playing together as a trio, they became very close friends. Eventually the band expanded to include a drummer, first George Reifel and later, Jackie Cohen. The group performed at an assortment of functions, from pep rallies to various dance events. They also played on Union Steamships that would take weekend cruises travelling up to Bowen Island. The trip would last for about an hour, and the jazz group

15 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 28, 2010.

16 Greg Gallagher, ―Phil Nimmons,‖ The Music Scene, July-August, 1976, 17. 13 would play for the passengers during the trip. They would stay on the island overnight, heading out to the local dance hall in the evening to play a show. The next morning, they would board the ship and play again during the journey back to Vancouver. When the boats were cancelled, the group would drive up to Horseshoe Bay and take a ferry over to Bowen Island instead. Nimmons‘ mother grew quite concerned about how busy he was with his extracurricular activities, as Nimmons would often stay out late even though he was still attending university. After each dance job, at around midnight or one o‘clock, the group headed out to their favorite Chinese restaurant called Mandarin Gardens. It was a strip club where they received free Chinese food in exchange for jamming. Nimmons would then return home around five in the morning, get changed, and head off to class.

The Juilliard School

The next phase in the development of Phil Nimmons as a clarinetist took place in New York at the Juilliard School of Music. He was assigned to be under the tutelage of Arthur Christmann. ―Juilliard was just a great experience for me,‖17 Nimmons recalls. While there, he had the opportunity to play in many kinds of groups and ensembles, including wind quintets, clarinet quartets, wind ensembles, symphonic bands, and symphony orchestras. Nimmons was very fortunate during these years; thanks to a scholarship that he had received, he did not need to worry about supporting himself financially. He could focus on studying and immersing himself into the educational process. With Nimmons having no formal training on the clarinet prior to his time in New York, Arthur Christmann plunged him into the fundamentals of playing. The main component of these lessons—and the thing that impressed Nimmons most—was the time they spent on long-tone exercises. Christmann had his young pupil start very soft and made him swell to a loud dynamic, followed by diminuendo, pointing out the two most important areas: the start and the finish. Christmann had a great way of teaching; he guided his students without stopping any intuitive or natural qualities that they demonstrated. Slow finger exercises were assigned, using the methods of such masters as

17 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 28, 2010.

14

Klosé, Rose, Baermann, and Kroepsch. The exercises were first executed using half notes, progressing to quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes, up until Nimmons reached the fastest speed he was able to do them—all in an effort to achieve individuality of the fingers; something Nimmons had not been aware of to that point. Juilliard enabled Phil Nimmons to interact with other influential musical masters who helped mold his musical awareness. During his time as a student, and came to Juilliard to give master classes, in which Nimmons participated. Dimitri Mitropoulos was another musical figure Nimmons had the opportunity to meet and see in live performance at . Jazz was not an area that Nimmons was exposed to at Juilliard; however, the jazz scene in New York at the time, largely found along 52nd Street, left a lasting impression on him. At that time, it was inexpensive to get a drink and listen to the music of and other great jazz legends, as they had not yet become big-named artists. On one occasion, Nimmons recalls, he sat in and jammed one night at the legendary Minton‘s jazz club located on 118th Street, which was a place in upper New York City where musicians could get together to jam. Another memorable jazz experience for Nimmons in New York came at the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn. Dexter Gordon was playing there, and this performance was the first time Nimmons had any close contact with him. At the time, Gordon was a Lester Young disciple, as he would hold his horn out to the side even higher than Lester would—which was a trademark of the legend.

The Beginnings of Nimmons ‘N’ Nine & Nimmons ‘N’ Nine Plus Six

A return to Canada in 1948 saw Nimmons enter the Senior School at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, pursuing composition studies. Nimmons was also reunited with the CBC as a studio musician, and he rejoined the Ray Norris Quintet as it relocated to Toronto from Vancouver. During the 1940s the quintet gained popularity while performing on the CBC‘s Serenade in Rhythm program.18 The CBC was very much involved in producing musical shows, radio plays, and variety shows, and many musicians, singers, and actors were hired to participate in their

18 Mark Miller, Such Melodious Racket (Toronto: The Mercury Press, 1997), 236.

15 productions. Nimmons recalls this period at the CBC: ―It was like the golden age of the CBC. It‘s just hard to think about the tremendous contrast of then and now in what the CBC did. I think it brought us together across the country.‖19 In 1953, a number of musicians from the CBC, including Nimmons, began getting together for the sole purpose of playing with one another—the way others might get together to play poker. The group met on a regular basis every two weeks or so at one another‘s apartments, where ten people could fit in and play pieces and arrangements written by Nimmons. At first, these musicians got together to jam only for their own personal enjoyment, without any objectives, plans, or appointments for performances. Their instrumentation was unique in the sense that it incorporated an accordion along with the traditional jazz instruments such as clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, trumpet, trombone, guitar, bass, and drums. This instrumentation happened the same way Nimmons‘ whole career evolved; it simply grew naturally. The whole group shared a specific tonal concept which Nimmons describes this way: ―If you can actually visualize it, the outer perimeter of the circle of the sound would be vibrating yet never change, but the vibrations all took place within it, and all of us in Nimmons‘ ‗N‘ Nine felt that as well.‖20 After three, the group grew to ten members and remained that size for a number of years. During this period, the ensemble had only one broadcast, and it was then that the group was labelled as the Phil Nimmons Group—Nimmons being the leader in name only. In practice, the ten musicians contributed equally to the whole ensemble.

19 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 28, 2010.

20 Ibid.

16

Fig. 2. The original Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine with a few extra musicians in the mid-1960s before their tour to Cypress.

In 1956, the group made its debut performance at the Stratford Festival.21 The second major performance by the group took place at the Museum Theater in Toronto, where the price of a ticket was $1.50. These performances at the Museum Theater continued for a number of years, with each program consisting of charts written by Nimmons. Before Jazz Radio Canada became a popular radio series, there was a short series called Variety Showcase that aired in the late 1950s, and the Phil Nimmons Group found ample air time on that show. The group was slotted to perform at 9 o‘clock in the evenings, which led to them being referred to as Nimmons at Nine. When the producer of CBC‘s Variety Showcase, Ken Dalziel, realized that the group was actually made up of Nimmons and nine musicians, the group officially became known as Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine. In 1958, the CBC launched a jazz program which broadcast series of performances by a large variety of Canadian jazz groups. Musicians from across the country, from Victoria to St. John‘s, would be featured on this show, exposing the Canadian public to Canada‘s jazz community. It was during this time that Nimmons‘ historic ensemble began to materialize. Prior to these events in Toronto in 1955, the well known American French horn player, composer, and musicologist, Gunther Schuller, along with Oscar Peterson, sat in on one of the group‘s rehearsals. The sound they heard left such a strong, lasting

21 Alex and Ted Barris, Making Music: Profiles from a Century of Canadian Music (Toronto:Harper Collins, 2001), 325.

17 impression on them that they suggested that legendary record producer Norman Granz should hear and record the group. Norman Granz was one of the most successful concert promoters and record producers at that time, having recorded such renowned jazz figures as Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, and . He was responsible for establishing the popular touring show called Jazz at the Philharmonic, which travelled the world. The show brought together various groups of soloists who were extracted from bigger, well-known groups, such as Benny Goodman‘s Band or Lionel Hampton‘s Band. Norman Granz also made it possible to record some of the great jazz musicians that might not otherwise have had the opportunity to make any recordings. As the budget increased for Variety Showcase, so did the number of musicians that were employed, allowing Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine to slowly expand. First the group incorporated vocalists such as Anne Marie Moss, who was a talented young singer at the time. With the exception of Moss, the group felt that there was a shortage of great singers, so they chose to expand with more brass players rather than continuing to include vocalists. The first show that the larger Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine performed was with a local radio announcer, Bruce Marsh. Marsh approached Nimmons to ask what the name of this expanded group was going to be. The thought, up until that point, had not even crossed Nimmons‘ mind, so he replied, ―I don‘t know.‖ Without hesitation, Marsh suggested, ―Let‘s call it Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six.‖ (Later on, Nimmons‘ quartet became known as Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Minus Six.) The group would perform regularly on Jazz Unlimited, Jazz Canadian, Jazz Workshop, and the popular television show The Barris Beat, which aired on Saturday nights following Hockey Night In Canada.22 The Canadian educational system had begun to implement stage band programs into schools with formal music pedagogy, including jazz instrumental techniques.23 Taking advantage of this opportunity, Nimmons convinced many schools and universities that his band could provide great music and an educational experience.24 Many principals were very fond of jazz, so this program generated a lot of interest throughout the city of Toronto. At first the band just played during assemblies; over time,

22 Geoff Chapman, ―Bandleader Gets His Due,‖ The Toronto Star, Saturday, March 3, 2001, J2.

23 Richard Flohil, ―The Big Band Beat of Phil Nimmons,‖ Performing Arts (Fall 1978): 46.

24 Ibid.

18 the show became more interactive. Nimmons would give talks about the band and about the music they were playing. On a number of occasions, he would also play broadcasts from the CBC and talk to the students about the music and the whole process of being a musician. Rehearsals for the band shifted from the rehearsal studio at the CBC to the schools themselves. Eventually, students joined in and played alongside the band, playing charts from their classroom curriculum. This continued for five years. The CBC recorded and broadcast these sessions on the Jazz Canadiana series, including a variety program called The Entertainers, which was broadcast at 4:00 p.m. every Sunday on the CBC radio network.25 That same year in 1971, Nimmons appeared at the International Music Camp in the International Peace Garden. He was featured as guest soloist with the Winnipeg Orchestra, performing for students on the U.S.-Canadian Border that divides North Dakota and Manitoba.26 In the summer of 1972, Nimmons and members of his band participated in a two-week seminar at the Niagara College of Applied Arts and Technology, giving daily instrumental workshops.27 In 2003, Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. Guitarist Michael Cado organized a concert to commemorate the anniversary at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto.

25 CBC Radio, ―Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six: Jazz is the Thing at CBC Radio School Concerts,‖ February 2, 1971.

26 Helen McNamara, ―Phil Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six,‖ International Musician (December 1972).

27 Ibid.

19

Fig. 3. Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six at the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival in 2003.

From 1995 through to 2008, Nimmons was awarded the Jazz Report Award and the National Jazz Award for Clarinetist of the Year. On November 2, 2002, Nimmons received the Governor General‘s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.28 At the age of 88, Phil Nimmons continues to have an active performing career, playing with David Braid as the duo Nimmons ‗N‘ Braid. They simply show up at concerts, sit down, and begin to play. They don‘t discuss any sort of plan prior to their performance; they prefer to keep the whole process very spontaneous. That seems to be the theme running through Nimmons‘ career: things just happen to evolve and work brilliantly. ―Maybe there is a greater power that is really governing our creative impulses,‖ reflects Nimmons.29 The duo has performed throughout Canada at various music festivals.

28 Phil Nimmons: Curriculum Vitae, January 2010. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, Chalmers House.

29 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 15, 2010.

20

Recollections of Interesting Performances

In the early years of Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine, the group was hired to play in Stratford, Ontario, at the Stratford Festival. It was the very first year that jazz was featured at the Festival; this was largely due to the initiative of Lou Applebaum, who was the artistic director of the festival at the time. Other known artists who performed there that same year included the Oscar Peterson Trio as well as Duke Ellington. On one occasion, when Nimmons‘ band was expected to perform in Stratford, some members had a previous engagement with the CBC. Once the CBC broadcast was finished, the remaining members had to rush to make the performance in Stratford. Playing at Camp Fortune also proved to be memorable as the title of the feature piece came to fruition. The band was performing at an outdoor venue, and as they began to play the piece entitled Come Rain or Come Shine, Mother Nature seemed to be listening and a storm broke out. The band stopped playing, collected their amplifiers, and headed to the closest tent. One of the most memorable concerts that Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six ever performed was in Glace Bay, in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The concert took place in 1977 and the band, as Nimmons recalls it, ―played so fantastic.‖ They performed the first half of the concert, which was executed extremely well. Then, the program for the second half opened with the Gabrieli‘s Double Brass Quartet. The theater was in total darkness; the brass section was spread out throughout the theater, and they played the Gabrieli piece in the darkness. As they finished, a spotlight came up on pianist Gary Williamson as he began to improvise on stage. After Williamson, Stan Perry appeared in another spotlight while improvising on the drums. That was followed by the whole rhythm section playing a freestyle improvisation. This led directly into Dorian Way, which was played at a very quick tempo because there was no opportunity to count the band in. Regardless, the horns and the rest of the band played the whole performance perfectly. ―It was quite an experience,‖ Nimmons recalls of the whole concert. The only recording that exists from that performance is from the Uher stereo cassette player Gary Williamson had set up in the rhythm section. Another memorable performance with Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six came on the same tour, while in Stephenville, Newfoundland. This was a town with an extremely high

21 unemployment rate, and as a result only forty people came to attend the concert. Prior to that, in the province‘s capital, St. John‘s, the band had performed at a big theater in front of about 800 people. They ended up selling around ten albums at the St. John‘s concert. The audience in Stephenville, however, created an ambiance far bigger than the actual number of patrons, and the band managed to sell forty albums. Everyone at the concert bought an album. The forty audience members had very much become a part of the concert. Afterwards, the band went out to a local motel to jam, where they were joined by a local musician playing violin and another individual playing the spoons, all while dancing with their feet. The experience in Stephenville was some of the most fun that the band had on that tour. With support from the CBC and the Department of National Defence, Nimmons, as musical director, went on tour playing for Canadian troops stationed in various regions of the world. Throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s, he toured various countries in Europe, including Germany and France, before heading to Africa and performing in Egypt and Kenya. A tour to the east took him to Cyprus, Israel, the Gaza Strip, and finally India. Tours in Canada included such destinations as Beaverlodge, Alberta; Inuvik, Northwest Territories; Shilo, Manitoba; and Petawawa, Ontario. These tours filled a great need for Canadian serviceman who, while serving their country, had very little opportunity to enjoy live performances—and witnessing these performances brought them a brief connection to their homeland. These tours also exposed Nimmons to various new cultures which had a profound effect on him artistically and emotionally: ―It changed my life completely. I came back as a different person.‖30

30 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 28, 2010.

22

CHAPTER 3

RECORDINGS

First Recordings In 1956, Phil Nimmons recorded his first album, entitled The Canadian Scene via The Phil Nimmons Group. This project came about through the efforts of Oscar Peterson, with whom Nimmons had been friends since 1950. Another important figure who helped initiate this recording was Gunther Schuller, who made the suggestion for Nimmons to be introduced to legendary record producer Norman Granz. The CBC had a recording studio on McGill Street in downtown Toronto, and this was where the recording session took place. The record was released under the Verve label. What was unique about this recording was that it was the very first stereo jazz recording done in Canada. A single SM2 microphone was used to record the entire session, with the final product, as Nimmons recalls, sounding ―great.‖ Norman Granz produced a second album, Nimmons ‘N’ Nine, that was released in 1963. The albums were later reissued due to the efforts of Ted O‘Reilly, a Toronto radio broadcaster, and Ken Druker, who was associated with RCA Victor. In 1963, the group decided to make a recording on their own and approached RCA Victor, whose head office was located in . The recording was made in Toronto with Wilf Gillmeister as the A & R Manager. The title of the album was Take Ten. None of the musicians were paid and all expenses were covered by the members of the band. However, the production costs were picked up by RCA Victor. This was the first official recording done by Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine, and it featured several original compositions. The recording has been selling well over the years since its release, with fans still showing interest. All of the arranging and writing for Take Ten was done by Nimmons. It was the first of three recordings completed by Nimmons for RCA Victor.31

31 Phil Nimmons. 1963. Take Ten. Phil Nimmons Group. Toronto. RCA Victor LCP 1066.

23

The following year, in 1964, the head of RCA Victor Canada, George Harrison, suggested that a second album should be recorded based on Mary Poppins. At that time, Mary Poppins was due for release in theaters, and Disney was putting forth a great effort to market the film. One example was hiring well-known musicians to record albums with the title Mary Poppins. The Sherman brothers, who wrote the music and lyrics for the movie, sent Nimmons the score from Los Angeles. Nimmons made arrangements with a jazzed-up version of the score, composing charts with simple chord progressions consisting of I-II-V, which the band recorded. When the album was finally released, it was titled Mary Poppins Swings.32 The third record produced by RCA Victor was released in 1965 with the title Strictly Nimmons.33 By this time, the band had grown into Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six, so one side of the album featured Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine while the other featured Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six. This recording marked the end of the smaller ensemble. In the following years the larger of the two groups, Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six, continued to perform.

Recordings in the 1970s

In 1970, Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six recorded Nimmons Now for the CBC. In this recording the band introduced a new style, which incorporated rock music into their usual jazz style. The recording consisted of a mixture of original compositions and arrangements of popular rock tunes. This was a big stylistic change for Nimmons as an arranger; on this album he was working with songs from the Beatles. The tunes that ended up on the album included such songs as Hey Jude and Midnight Cowboy. Nimmons also began incorporating rock and other popular styles of the time into his original works, mostly as a result of their growing popularity both in North AmErica and the world. Their move into this style had Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six appearing on Jazz

32Phil Nimmons. 1964. Mary Poppins Swings. Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine. Toronto. RCA Victor LCPS 1066.

33 Phil Nimmons. 1965. Strictly Nimmons. Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six. Toronto. RCA Victor LCP 1066.

24

Radio Canada. Nimmons arranged four cover charts that were big, long suites of Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Tommy, and Shaft, which were all in the style of jazz mixed with rock. The very first rock chart that Nimmons composed was titled Everybody’s is Talking. For the bicentennial of Charlottetown, held in Prince Edward Island (PEI) in 1973, CBC retained the services of an all-star jazz band to travel to PEI and perform at the commemoration. The members included on alto saxophone, Gary Morgan on baritone saxophone, on trumpet, Rob McConnell on trombone, Bruce Harvey on piano, on guitar, on bass, on drums, on the vibraphone, and Phil Nimmons on clarinet. Nimmons was also commissioned to compose a piece for the event, as well as to perform as a soloist. The piece was called Suite PEI. The group first performed it in Charlottetown, and following the event they returned to Toronto to perform the same program and record it on an album for CBC. It was to be a live recording and was set to take place at the Bandshell at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). The day of recording happened to be an extremely hot day, and the musicians were so affected by the temperature that the recording was deemed not to be acceptable. As a result, the recording of the actual performance in Charlottetown was released as an album, with the same title, Suite PEI. The second album that Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six released, independently, was the Atlantic Suite, taking its name from the featured track, which was recorded in 1975. During that period, Nimmons was receiving great sums of royalties from various other pieces he had written, which allowed him to finance studio costs and other expenses for the recording of Atlantic Suite. The entire group—all sixteen musicians—waived their fees for the recording. It was discussed among the group that the featured piece should be part of the first tour by Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six, and the members of the ensemble unanimously agreed that this piece should be recorded as well. John Norris and Bill Smith, who had been with Sackville Records, released the album. It proved to be a great success and was awarded the very first Juno Award for Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year. Due to popular demand, Sackville subsequently released a CD version of the

25 album. Today, nearly 40 years after its first release, the album is still selling. In 1996, a double CD set was released that featured the Atlantic Suite, Suite PEI, and Tributes.34 Transformations/Invocations was the next album recorded by Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six; it was commissioned by the CBC in 1976.35 A year earlier, the CBC had also commissioned Nimmons to write a piece for the World Music Week which was organized in association with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), with the title Transformations. Nimmons refers to this piece as his ― Suite‖ for its length and duration; it bears similarity to Mahler‘s extended compositions. The performance time for this piece is around forty-five minutes, and it consists of five movements. The entire piece is based on four pitches: B, C, A, and D. The title Transformations derives from Nimmons‘ treatment of those pitches and how he creates various moods and styles by exploiting them. The piece was premiered in 1975 at the Ontario Science Centre. In 1976, Nimmons and his band were hired and commissioned by the Canadian Olympic Committee‘s Cultural Department (COJO), to write a piece for the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada. They were also asked to tour various cities where Olympic events were taking place. The title of the piece was Invocations; it was featured on a tour that took them to Kingston, Ottawa, Sherbrooke, Quebec City, and Montreal. Later that year, the CBC decided to record a double album featuring both Transformations and Invocations. Bob Kroll, a record producer for CBC, played a large part in creating this double album set.

Late Recordings

The next album would not be recorded until twenty-four years later in 2001, when Nimmons recorded Sands of Time, performed by the Phil Nimmons Quartet. For a number of years prior to 2001, Nimmons had been performing regularly at a famous

34 Phil Nimmons. 1996. Atlantic Suite, Suite P.E.I. and Tributes. Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six. Toronto. Sackville Records. LC 3315.

35 Phil Nimmons. 1976 Transformation/Invocations. Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six. Toronto. CBC LM 452.

26

Toronto jazz club called The Montreal Bistro. The quartet consisted of Gary Williamson on piano, Steve Wallace on Bass, Barry Elmes on drums, and Nimmons on clarinet. At the time, Nimmons felt that the group should record an album, so they ventured out to a studio and played through many sessions trying to get a sound and quality they felt comfortable with. Nimmons recalls that he was not satisfied with the final product; however, the album was released by Sackville Records in the spring of 2001. Nimmons says of the experience, ―I didn‘t think I played as well as I could ... I am not too fussy recording under those circumstances with headphones and everything, I never related to that somehow. It was not like playing live because we were in booths, so to speak.‖36 The late Murray Lauder, who was the bass player with the original Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine, had taken air checks from live radio broadcasts of the group dating from 1959 through 1964, and re-recorded them on his stereo to clean up the sound quality. He then put them on cassette tapes so that he could give Nimmons and the rest of the band members each a copy. Nimmons had taken the liberty of sending a copy to Ted O‘Reilly—who at that time was a radio announcer at Toronto‘s CJRT 91.1 FM Jazz program—and John Norris, of Coda Magazine and Sackville Recordings. They both had the idea that this tape should be released as a CD, which it was, with the title Vintage Nimmons ‘N’ Nine. It was released by Sackville Records as a double CD set in 2003.37 A suggestion was also made that, as a result of Noreen‘s passing a year earlier, proceeds from the sales should go to the Noreen and Phil Nimmons Scholarship at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. Canadian Composers: Portraits from the Canadian Music Centre was an album set initiated by trombonist Dave McMurdo along with Elisabeth Bihl and Richard Truhlar from the Canadian Music Centre, with support from the , the CBC, and various other donors. The Canadian Music Centre had instigated a project called the Canadian Composers Portrait Series, documenting the lives and music of Canadian classical musicians. Nimmons was the first musician to be featured who represented both the classical and jazz idioms. Dave McMurdo, who had been the lead trombone player

36 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 20, 2010.

37 Phil Nimmons. 2003. Vintage Nimmons ‘N’ Nine: Air Checks 1959-1964.. Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six. Toronto. Sackville Records.

27 with Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six, had by this time established his own ensemble known as the Dave McMurdo Jazz Orchestra (DMJO). McMurdo had been a big supporter of Nimmons and his music and had previously recorded many of Nimmons‘ compositions with DMJO. After his appearance on the Canadian Music Centre series, McMurdo had the idea of recording Nimmons‘ music. This recording was eventually released in 2007, entitled Canadian Composers: Portraits from the Canadian Music Centre, in a three-CD set. Jazz pianist David Braid was once a pupil of Nimmons‘ at the University of Toronto. During his years as a student, Braid would come by Nimmons‘ office in the mornings prior to classes and would say to Nimmons, ―Let‘s play!‖ Over the four years as an undergraduate, he and Nimmons never played together. Later, after graduating, Braid contacted Nimmons about an opportunity that had come up for them to perform together and said, ―You have to play with me!‖ On route to the performance, Braid asked, ―What should we play?‖ and Nimmons replied, ―Let‘s improvise.‖ Braid said, ―On what tunes?‖ and Nimmons said, ―Forget the tunes, let‘s improvise totally!‖38 That is how Nimmons ‗N‘ Braid happened. Both artists were classically trained and were aware of form and how it was inherent within musical structure, which gave them the ability to improvise with variety; they were both able to make sure that they did not play anything similar back-to-back. As they performed together, they created sounds and were able to react and develop them as quickly as they could hear them. Fortuitously, Nimmons brought a mini disc and a fairly good microphone and they recorded their first performance—which was totally unplanned. Once Nimmons and Braid heard the results of the recording, they decided that they should release a CD. Their album, Beginnings, was released in December of 2005 and is made up of seven improvised tracks.39 This recording was intended to give the listener free rein; they are to develop their own meaning of what they hear and react to the music however they wish, without any indication from the performers as to what they should be listening for. This notion also helped Nimmons and Braid to establish the titles of the tracks. They chose to

38Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, October 15, 2011.

39 Phil Nimmons. 2005. Beginnings. Nimmons ‗N‘ Braid. Toronto. Nimmons ‗N‘ Music Ltd. CD.

28 name each track after a letter from the alphabet—starting with the letter A, which is the title of the first track, and continuing all the way through G. Nimmons explained, ―It just fitted in because it was the beginning of our musical relationship performing together, and A, B, C, is the start of the alphabet, a minor scale, and of course when they talk about youngsters learning their A, B, Cs and life is full of A, B, Cs so it goes on and on endlessly.‖ The cover of the album is a piece of artwork created by Nimmons: a colourful, abstract representation of the alphabet. In 2009, Friendly Encounters was released as a result of a collaborative effort between Nimmons and clarinetist James Campbell. In a phone conversation with Campbell, Nimmons had mentioned a trip he and David Braid had taken to FredEricton, New Brunswick (where most of Nimmons‘ classical music had been featured), to perform at a summer music festival. Works of Nimmons‘ that were included in the festival were a piece for viola, Piano Toccata, and a piece for flute and jazz quartet, titled Friendly Encounters. The piece was originally written for flautist Nick Fiore who was principal flute with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and later the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The piece premiered in FredEricton in 1970 at and All that Jazz, and was originally performed with Nick Fiore on flute and a quartet composed of Phil Nimmons, Gary Williamson, Stan Perry and Dave Field. This event featuring Nimmons‘ classical works gave Campbell the idea of doing something similar at his festival in Parry Sound, Ontario, known as the Festival of the Sound. During the festival, Campbell performed all of Nimmons‘ clarinet works—including some duets with Nimmons—while Friendly Encounters was performed by the current principal flautist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Nora Shulman. At the conclusion of the festival, Nimmons and Campbell made a recording of the featured repertoire with the same personnel and released it with the cover title, Friendly Encounters.40

40 Phil Nimmons. 2009. Friendly Encounter. James Campbell, Phil Nimmons and Friends. Toronto. Marquis 81399.

29

CHAPTER 4

THE EDUCATOR

Nimmons has come to the realization that so much of who he is and what he knows comes from the people he has met, embraced, or have touched him in one way or another, whether it was while studying medicine at UBC or in any other pursuit. Throughout his career, Nimmons has been looked upon not only as a performer but as a renowned educator, juror, and adjudicator. He has been a juror for such reputable organizations as the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Prison Arts Foundation. As a clinician, Nimmons has been invited to adjudicate at such prestigious music festivals as the Canadian Stage Band Festival, the Kiwanis Music Festival, the International Society of Music Educators (ISME), the B.C. Music Teachers‘ Federation, Festival Canada Alberta, Music Fest Canada, and the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJA).

Teaching Philosophy

In his book, The Element, Dr. Ken Robinson suggested that there are only two elements in education: passion and creativity. These elements, Robinson argued, need to be exercised. This opinion is one that Phil Nimmons happens to share.41 ―I try to put a positive spin on teaching because I think it should be positive. I feel that education is the basis for curing all the world‘s ills, meaning that the educational process in every ethnic situation is in providing knowledge and information to people. Education can teach us to love the differences of all. Learn to love them and accept them. That has been a philosophy of mine as well. You have to have an open mind. You can

41 Ken Robinson P.h.D. with Lou Aronica, The Element (USA: Viking Penguin, 2009), 1-27.

30 become quite emotionally involved with your students, and I think you have to develop a certain control.‖42 Nimmons had developed his own unique way of teaching as a result of his great variety of experiences. He often says, ―I came up through the trenches, so to speak, and the fact that I had studied the classical idiom in addition to jazz, which I learned through osmosis.‖43 While pursuing his musical studies at Juilliard and at the Royal Conservatory of Music, however, there was never any intent to study to become a teacher; there was simply a desire to go after knowledge. Nimmons‘ first experience as a teacher came during the late 1950s and early 1960s in Toronto, where he began giving theory lessons. Some of his most well-known students were Oscar Peterson, who had studied theory and harmony with him; Ray Brown, who was the drummer with the Oscar Peterson Trio; Erich Traugott, who was a trumpet player; Guido Basso; ; and many others. Among Nimmons‘ earlier students, Rick Wilkins stands out as one of the successful in the field of arranging. Nimmons primarily taught classical part writing, using the text that he himself had used back at the conservatory, The Contrapuntal Harmonic Technique of the 18th Century by Dr. Allen Irvine McHose. The fact that Nimmons was immersed in the jazz idiom enabled him to present classical material in an interesting fashion to someone who may only have been oriented to the jazz style. When it comes to working with students, Nimmons takes the approach of treating everyone as an individual. He tends to take the person he is teaching into account and responds to individual personalities, qualities, and characters. ―I have always maintained since I have really started to teach at the university, if I have four people in the class, I have four different approaches, and if I have twenty, I have twenty different approaches. Being a good teacher is trying to find each one of those and is harder the larger the class. But I think it is important that you are aware of that and you try to use it when you are teaching because if you understand each individual, his or

42 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 20, 2010.

43 Ibid.

31 her feelings about things and everything, I think you have a better chance of communicating and getting some information to them.‖44

Advanced School of Contemporary Music

After a few years spent teaching theory, Nimmons became involved in the establishment of the Advanced School of Contemporary Music, which existed from 1959 through 1963. Oscar Peterson had the idea to start the school, but all members of the Trio, and Nimmons were united in the goal of trying to share their wisdom and knowledge with people who had the desire to learn their craft. Following performances, people approached them with questions, intrigued by how they were able to create such sounds playing jazz—similar to the way Nimmons had done when he was listening to Count Basie and Duke Ellington twenty years earlier. This was the trigger for establishing the school. In order to recruit students to attend the school, brochures were printed and sent out to an assortment of locations around the city of Toronto. Advertisements were printed in various magazines, such as Downbeat Magazine. Recruitment did not prove to be a challenge as Peterson‘s international reputation served as the best possible marketing tool. Surprisingly, local students from Toronto did not take advantage of the opportunity that was available to them. Instead, students from around the world—with the exception of Russia and China—had come to study with these masters. In the earliest days of the school, there was only a total enrolment of ten to fifteen students, with lessons being held in the basement of Oscar Peterson‘s home in Scarborough. As the school reached seventeen students, Oscar gave the school the name The Advanced School of Contemporary Music. They moved the school to Park Road between Davenport Road and Church Street in an effort to accommodate the growing student body. There were a couple of detached houses there and Nimmons and the Trio decided to rent and use them as the facilities for the school. Each room within the house became a private studio and the living room was utilized as the main venue where ensemble coaching was held.

44 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 20, 2010.

32

The main component of the school was what Nimmons and the Trio referred to as playing forums—a term labeled by Peterson. This was their prime methodology. It was similar to a master class format; students playing in a small ensemble with the masters there to constructively critique them. Existing groups were encouraged to attend; however, new groups were also formed with students who had come to study individually. Private lessons were also available at the school. From the beginning, the goal of the school was to apply and highlight the intense relationship between theory and practice. As the school evolved, so did the faculty. Erich Traugott joined the faculty and taught trumpet for a while; Ed Bickert taught guitar; Jerry Toth taught alto saxophone; and Butch Watanabe taught trombone occasionally throughout the course of the school‘s existence. Nimmons never taught clarinet privately at the school, but he and the Trio were the main advisors when it came to conducting playing forums. Playing forums sessions paid very close attention to detail and the comments from the faculty were very honest. If there was something played that did not sound the way it should, no one held back with the comments. They were all sure to let their opinions be known. This may have shocked some of the students at first, but in the end it proved to be the right approach, as many of the students were very successful in their studies.45

The Banff Centre for the Arts

In 1973 Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six performed at a benefit concert with Oscar Peterson at the Bayview Country Club in Thornhill, just north of Toronto. The benefit was to raise money for children with learning disabilities. This was a cause in which the Nimmons family was very active because their daughter Carey had a learning disability. The education system in those days was not yet as sensitive to learning disabilities as it is now, and as a result the parents of these children united and formed a group called Association for Children with Learning Disabilities (ACLD). This group had sponsored the event, and Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six and Peterson donated their services to help raise money for the cause.

45 Erich Traugott, Telephone Interview, November 6, 2011.

33

To help promote the event, Nimmons and Peterson appeared on a television show called Luncheon Date with Elwood Glover, which was usually broadcast at noon. During the course of the broadcast, they were asked to talk about the Advanced School of Contemporary Music. Once the segment came to its end, a gentleman who was to appear on the following segment approached the two musicians and introduced himself as David Leighton. David Leighton was the president of the Banff Centre for the Arts, and he had been very intrigued by the Advanced School of Contemporary Music and decided to invite Nimmons and Peterson to the Centre.

Fig. 4. Oscar Peterson and Phil Nimmons in 1974.

In 1974, Phil Nimmons and Oscar Peterson, along with a rhythm section that was not Peterson‘s own, flew out to Banff to create a jazz program. Nimmons was appointed artistic head of the workshop and was instrumental in developing the program.46 The concept of playing forums became the basis for the course as well, allowing young

46 Banff Centre for the Arts, Jazz Concerts, Banff: Banff Centre for the Arts Program. July 25, 1998.

34 musicians to develop their instrumental and conceptual skills. Peterson, meanwhile, only attended the program‘s inaugural season. In 1975, Nimmons extended the program to two-week sessions and augmented the guest faculty to include seven artists, including vocalist Big Miller and saxophone/flautist Paul Horn. Nimmons proudly supported Canadian musicians and had hired them exclusively throughout his term, including trombonists Rob McConnell, trumpeter Don Clark, saxophonist Pat Labarbera, and guitarist Ed Bickert. Nimmons returned to Banff every year for the next seven years as the director of the jazz program. Throughout the years, a great variety of jazz artists had come to share their knowledge and craft with young, ambitious students. Currently, the jazz program is thriving while maintaining the highest standards of music education and continuing to use playing forms as its key component.

Chamber Music and All That Jazz

Phil‘s younger sister, Arlene, had gone on to become a concert pianist. She married a musician by the name of Joseph Pach, who was a classical violinist, and had settled in Fredericton, New Brunswick. In 1968, they established a summer music festival, Chamber Music and All That Jazz, which featured classical and jazz music, and provided chamber music concerts and master classes. Naturally, Arlene had approached her older brother Phil to look after the jazz portion of the festival. Financial support had come from the Canada Council and also a division of du Maurier that was dedicated to supporting the arts and had done so quite strongly across the country. The University of New Brunswick, which had hired Arlene and her husband as resident musicians, also contributed greatly to making the festival possible. Initially, it was only Phil with the rhythm section from Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six who participated in the festival. They were soon joined by many other notable participants, including a jazz group from the west coast called the Pacific Salt. From Toronto, Rob McConnell, Moe Koffman, and Ed Bickert were all guests at various times throughout the existence of the festival. On the classical side, notable guests included Mischa Elman, who played first violin with the NBC Symphony Orchestra; John Williams, the classical guitarist; the

35

Orford Quartet; and the renowned percussion ensemble, Nexus. It was a great interchange of styles that took place. Artists from both the classical and jazz idioms had profound respect for one another. They were very supportive of each other‘s work and had tried to familiarize themselves with the styles of the others. Oscar Peterson was also invited to come and perform at the festival. Prior to his appearance, he had given Phil a little 45 album of the Canadiana Suite performed by Peterson‘s famous trio, which Phil decided to score for Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six with Oscar as the piano soloist. It was premiered at the festival in Fredericton with great success, and with the efforts of Paul Mills (who was a producer at CBC at the time), CBC picked it up and recorded it under its label. It was recorded in Toronto and released on a vinyl album. In 1975, the city of Fredericton awarded Nimmons a Certificate of Appreciation for Cultural Contribution for his work at the festival.

Courtenay Summer Music Camp

Nimmons spent the summers from the late 1970s through to the 1980s in Courtenay, British Columbia. Phil had been hired to be director of jazz studies at the Courtenay Summer Music Festival. The program lasted two weeks and offered a mixture of classical music and jazz, similar to the format of the Banff Centre and of Chamber Music and All That Jazz. Phil had recruited faculty members for the camp from Vancouver and Victoria. The program was structured around master classes, identical to the playing forums at the Advanced School of Contemporary Music. Small jazz groups were formed and coaches were assigned to each group. There was a big band as well, and faculty members gave private lessons. The theoretical aspects of jazz performance were addressed during coaching sessions. Students came primarily from across Canada, and much like Phil‘s experience when he was a young student, they had direct contact with the instructors outside the classrooms and concert halls. Students would hear the faculty perform in the evening and have breakfast, lunch, and dinner with them on a daily basis. They might have learned as much during meal times as they did in the classroom.

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During their time at the camp, many of the faculty members would head over to the Arbutus Hotel in Courtenay a couple of nights a week and play small concerts. They didn‘t get paid for their work, but they just wanted to play. It was a great way to get acquainted with the community.

University of Toronto

In 1973, Nimmons received a phone call from , who was the Dean of the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, and Ezra Schabas, who was Chairman of the Performance Program as well as a clarinet player. They asked Nimmons to take over as director of the jazz band from Ward Cornell, who had been in charge of the program up until that point. Ward was a great teacher and had been the member of the faculty of music at the university for a while. The band was first established in response to the need expressed by the community, and not necessarily for the university itself. In the beginning, when Nimmons started working at the university, he was not readily accepted by some professors. As Nimmons recalls, ―They used to look at me like I was somewhere from Mars or something for being there. Having backgrounds in both styles, they had to accept me in a sense because I can talk on the levels of both.‖47 In the early stages, the band would meet on Tuesday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m. On some occasions the band consisted of only a few members. Over the years the program grew and a second band was created. The bands were scheduled to rehearse twice a week, while the other band only rehearsed once a week. By 1976, Nimmons began contributing to the curriculum for the program.It was around this time that Phil began teaching orchestration, which was part of the music education program. As the faculty began to grow, further assignments in teaching jazz education, jazz history, jazz composition, and improvisation began to take place, and Phil found himself teaching between eight and eleven hours a week. The official University Jazz Program was established in 1987, when Paul Read became the director. In 2003, the same year that Phil turned 80 years old, he was made Director Emeritus, and he continues to teach there to this day.

47 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 20, 2010.

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The improvisation course that Nimmons was asked to teach was called MUS ED Improvisations, and it did not relate at all to the jazz performance degree. Students majoring in jazz studies were not even able to take this course because it was strictly for music education majors. Eventually, classical performance majors began registering for the class, and as a result the course had jazz taken out of its scope and was renamed simply Improvisation. Students participating in this course range from strings players in the classical idiom to singers who wish to learn how to improvise. The whole course is essentially taught without using any written material, and with great emphasis on the use of the ear. Students must all sing, whether or not their focus is on singing. This approach to teaching was influenced by a choir concert Nimmons performed in at Juilliard, which was actually the first place where Nimmons had to sing. All 700 of the students that were attending Juilliard at the time assembled in a large theater with the conductor standing on stage. During Nimmons‘ first two years of study, Igor Buketoff was the conductor along with Robert Shaw, who became quite famous as a choral director of musical theater on Broadway in New York (and who took over during Nimmons‘ final year of study). Nimmons was one of seventy basses in the choir, and they gave a performance of Bach‘s Mass in B Minor. This experience made Nimmons aware of the fact that the voice is the primordial instrument, and he now relates a lot of his teaching to this concept. On the opening day of every class, the first thing Nimmons says is, ―Nobody will fail this course.‖ He doesn‘t believe in the words ‗mistake‘ or ‗error,‘ because those experiences are merely learning ones. Instead, he refers to them as ―less-than-positive experiences.‖ A source that Nimmons often uses to teach improvisation is a CD by Jon Hendricks, called Jon Hendricks and Friends. This album features words added to the solos performed in Freddie Freeloader on Miles Davis‘ Kind of Blue album. The final assignment Nimmons gives to his students is to sing those words along with the melody. He divides the class into groups of four and has each group sing a solo. This allows the students to expose themselves to the articulations, nuances, and shapes of jazz, which are essential to music educators running a jazz orchestra.

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Nimmons provides recordings of sections of works by Mozart, Brahms, Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel, and Debussy, and uses them as background material for students to improvise upon. ―I tell them, now you can tell everybody that you have played with Claude Debussy.‖48 Nimmons knows the importance of exposing students to music composed by the masters. Nimmons also places emphasis on treating music as an aural art form; he believes that everything should be related to the ear. To help illustrate this within his classes, everything is recorded during composition and improvisation classes. Students have the opportunity to hear their musical creations immediately. According to Nimmons, it is important for students to comprehend what they are looking at when it comes to playing from a score. This method of audio learning derives from Nimmons‘ roots in learning music. Nimmons and his peers grew up listening to 78 singles, radio broadcasts, and lifting the music off them in order to play it. In 1998, the University of Toronto awarded Nimmons the Arbor Award for outstanding voluntary service to the university, and in 2003 he was recognized with the Distinguished Service Award in Music Education, also by the University of Toronto. In June of 2006, Nimmons was the recipient of the 15th Annual Downbeat Achievement Award for Jazz Education.

Other Teaching Experiences

In 1978, the University of Western Ontario approached Nimmons to teach the jazz program. Once a week, Nimmons would drive for two hours on Highway 401 to get to London, Ontario, teach for four hours, and immediately drive back another two hours to Toronto. Working at the University allowed him to meet Jack Behrens, the Dean of Music. Behrens was a classical pianist and a composer; they would end up getting together to perform freely improvised music. In the late 1980s, Nimmons decided he could not commute any longer because of the heavy traffic on the highway and the snowy and icy road conditions, and resigned.

48 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 20, 2010.

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Nimmons also became involved with the Canadian Stage Band Festival as the first adjudicator along with the late Gordon Delmont, who wrote a number of harmony books for Kendor Music. In 1972, Robert Richmond, the former president of the organization; Gary Wadsworth, the former vice-president; and Paul Miner, the former secretary, established the festival as a non-profit corporation.49 There were seventeen bands from the Toronto area that participated in the festival during its early years and by 1978, 400 groups from across Canada were participating.50 Since then, the festival has grown significantly, and has now been renamed Music Fest. Nimmons was able to travel across Canada from St. John‘s to Victoria, adjudicating a great variety of bands and meeting local adjudicators as well as music directors from around the country. Nimmons had been the artistic director of summer jazz programs at York University in Ontario, the New Jazz Clinic, the Jazz Camp at Manitou Wabing Sports and Art Centre, and the Interprovincial Music Camp near Parry Sound, Ontario.51

49 Waxman, Ken. ―Phil Nimmons a Part of Stage Band Festivals,‖ The Music Scene, Sept. –Oct., 1978.

50 Richard Flohil, ―The Big Band Beat of Phil Nimmons,‖ Performing Arts, Fall, 1978, 46.

51 Murray Ginsberg. ―They Loved to Play.‖ Memories of the Golden Age in Canadian Music. (Toronto: Venture Press, 1998): 154.

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CHAPTER 5

THE COMPOSER

Phil Nimmons has been a very prolific composer, writing in a great variety of genres that include contemporary classical works for piano, strings, flute, voice, and instrumental music, as well as writing over 400 original jazz compositions. Other compositions include works for stage plays, theater specials, radio and television shows, and scores for film. This chapter will discuss Nimmons‘ classical and large-scale jazz compositions.

Early Experiences in Composition

After arriving in Vancouver in 1930, Nimmons began private piano and music theory lessons with Don McAlpine, a local music tutor. Nimmons recalls a conversation between his mother and McAlpine just after two or three sessions, ―Don‘t send him anymore. He knows more than I do!‖52 For the following years, Nimmons would be self- taught. During this time, Nimmons wrote pages and pages of music on the piano. He would spend hours by the piano composing small pieces, generally in the same key. Nimmons recalls the experience, ―I had a creative urge that needed to be somewhat satisfied.‖53 Nimmons‘ first major encounter with writing music came while studying at the University of British Columbia. While playing with the Ray Norris Quintet, Nimmons would write charts for the group to play. From there Nimmons progressed to writing dramatic music for radio plays; the first one was called Anthology, for which he wrote the incidental music. This project was written for a war correspondent called Dick

52 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 15, 2010.

53 Ibid.

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Diespecker, and Nimmons wrote it for various ensembles. One specific program that stands out in Nimmons‘ memory is the one that he wrote for four , which he performed and conducted, and for which he was paid $10 per show. During the early 1940s, Nimmons had a prosperous collaboration with trumpeter and arranger Lawrence Wilson. Wilson had an ongoing show that employed a string orchestra, a rhythm section, and a woodwind quintet. He hired Nimmons to be the extra clarinet player alongside the principal clarinetist of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Nimmons was the so-called jazzer of the group. Wilson would write charts for the ensemble and he employed Nimmons to make copies for each member of the group. Up until this point, Nimmons had no prior experience copying music, a skill he became very good at. Nimmons would spend days at Wilson‘s home copying scores every time the composer handed him a piece of music. This would usually take place three days prior to every performance. Dramatic music and music for radio plays were areas that both Wilson and Nimmons worked. This was an important time for Nimmons, as he had the opportunity to learn all about scoring. A habit that Nimmons learned from Lawrence Wilson that has stayed with him to this day was to pay very close attention to detail. Wilson would write every detailed indication on each score with pen—something which can also be found on all of Nimmons‘ compositions. Nimmons was also hired to write charts for stage shows, both for strings and a jazz rhythm section, or sometimes small jazz bands. These were sent to various venues where troops were stationed in British Columbia. One of the first charts Nimmons ever wrote was titled Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet. That work was written for a girls‘ vocal trio known as the Nabobettes, who were modelled after the Andrew Sisters.

Formal Lessons in Composition

After spending time at Juilliard, immersing himself in his clarinet studies in New York City, Nimmons returned to Toronto in 1949 where he entered the Senior School at the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM). There, he studied composition under the guidance of Arnold Walter, and harmony and theory under Richard Johnston. The

42 harmony and theory program was meant to last three years, but Nimmons ambitiously condensed it into one. The Contrapuntal Harmonic Technique of the 18th Century, written by Dr. Allan Irvine McHose, was a collection of Bach‘s Chorales, written about and analyzed within the text. This was the primary source that Nimmons used as an aid to learning about composition. The text did not call its lessons ―rules,‖ but referred to them instead as principals or conventions.54 ―You have people come into your life who may not be famous or whatever, but they open a door for you that is quite profound.‖ That is what Nimmons‘ experience was with Richard Johnston. Nimmons wrote musical samples in various styles that Johnston would scrutinize with great detail. Using Bach Chorales as examples, Nimmons studied part writing using only triads. Johnston taught Nimmons to become aware of the musicality within these compositions, made up of just the triads alone.

First Major Compositions

While at the RCM, Nimmons also had the opportunity to establish great, new friendships with other, now well-known Canadian composers, such as John Weinzweig, Harry Somers, Harry Freedman, John Beckwith, and Sam Dolin, as well as singers Louise Masha, Maureen Forrester, Elizabeth Benson Guy, and later Mary Morrison. This made his stay at the RCM a great experience. They all became very close and decided to join the International Federation of Music Students, which in addition to the RCM students, included students from , Curtis Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, and the Juilliard School. Annual symposia took place in various cities. Students wrote compositions that were performed at these events, where Nimmons was an active participant. In 1948, the International Federation of Music Students Symposium (IFMS) was held in Boston, Massachusetts, and Nimmons composed a work for the occasion. Sonatina for Flute and String Quartet was premiered at the event, performed by Dirk Keetbaas, who at the time was a flautist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The

54 Allen Irvine McHose. The Contrapuntal Harmonic Technique of the 18th Century (Prentice- Hall Eastman School of Music Series, 1947), ix-x.

43 following year, Nimmons again wrote for the Second International Music Symposium. For this event, he submitted the first of two works that had been his assignments while studying with Arnold Walter at the Conservatory: Piano Sonata No. 1 and Piano Toccata, which were dedicated to his love, Noreen Spencer. Piano Sonata No. 1 premiered at the second symposium. It was also at the symposium, in later years, that Nimmons met Gunther Schuller, with whom he became friends and who later was responsible for the very first recording of Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine. Nimmons rejoined the CBC during his enrolment at the RCM, and this allowed him to once again write for radio shows, as well as for the relocated Ray Norris Quintet, which Nimmons rejoined as a member. Nimmons‘ summer vacations during his years of Senior School were spent in Vancouver, composing dramatic shows and incidental music. The production was under the supervision of radio producer J. Frank Willis, who was from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and who influenced the programs by developing hour- long stories of the Maritimes and the Atlantic Provinces, such as Days of Sail and Peggy‘s Harbour.55 Nimmons wrote for a great variety of instrumental combinations for these programs, including a small, unique group consisting of harp, English horn, and viola. Nimmons was asked to compose a couple of radio shows that required some research for style. The first show was called The First Servant, set in an era prior to the time of Christ. For this program, Nimmons travelled up to the National Library in Ottawa to do research. At the library, he came across a book that was filled with music that had been found in caves from before the Common Era. He used this as a guide when composing for the show. The second show for which Nimmons had to do research at the National Library in Ottawa was a program about northern Canada and its Inuit populations. He worked on this research with Marius Barbeau, who was an expert in the Inuit of northern Canada. Nimmons spent some time in the library trying to come up with music that sounded authentically Inuit.

55 Richard Flohil, ―The Big Band Beat of Phil Nimmons,‖ Performing Arts (Fall 1978): 45.

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Another new experience for Nimmons came with the assignment to write music in the style of a Broadway musical. The instrumentation called for a small chamber orchestra with four singers, a soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. CBC did an hour-long radio show and Nimmons had to write a 3-minute overture for each show. Nimmons would extract a few songs from the main production to compose the overtures. CIL Singing Stars was a radio program that was sponsored by the CIL Paint Company. Musicians would audition to have an opportunity to perform on the show, and in 1950, Nimmons was selected to compose and perform a piece for the show. Marionette was the first work Nimmons had never written for a classical orchestra. It was premiered by the CIL Orchestra conducted by Rex Battle. This proved to be a valuable lesson in orchestration for the young composer. In 1957, Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine was hired by Norman Jewison, who was a producer for CBC at the time, to become the house band for a late-night talk show called the Barris Beat, which was to air on Saturday evenings after Hockey Night in Canada. Nimmons had done some writing in the past for Jewison while he was a producer on the General Electric’s Showtime. Jewison was the director of the show and a big fan of jazz, and Nimmons, in addition to performing with his band, wrote all the charts for the show. This went on for two years.56 During the early 1960s, as television was becoming popular, the CBC expanded into that medium. With that, Nimmons‘ role had also expanded into writing background music for TV musicals. Norman Campbell, who preferred the classical genre, hired Nimmons to write musicals as well as to orchestrate lyrics written for other shows, such as Take to the Woods and Oh Canada. The most successful show that Nimmons was a part of was Anne of Green Gables, which received international recognition. Norman Campbell, Don Harron, and Campbell‘s wife, Elaine, wrote all of the music and lyrics for the show, which Nimmons then arranged and orchestrated for full orchestra. It was conducted by Gordon Kushner. The production came out to a ninety-minute show.

56 Norman Jewison. This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me: An Autobiography (Toronto: Key Porter Book Ltd., 2004), 43.

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The 1970s

In 1973, Nimmons was commissioned to write Suite PEI, a work that was inspired by the natural beauty and cultural identity of Prince Edward Island, and is representative of East Coast Canadian culture. The work is a through-composed, three- section work for clarinet and jazz band. The work opens with a wailing clarinet introduction followed by a medium-tempo theme, with an opening harmonic progression of V-I, V-I. The piece then proceeds into a ballad-like middle section that is reflective in quality, as the clarinet is heard over an ostinato accompaniment in the brass. The final section displays Celtic folk elements that can be found in traditional PEI music. Nimmons achieved this by introducing the section with a strumming guitar, joined by percussive spoons to accompany a repeated articulated motive on clarinet, which shifts into an up-tempo swing. On the 24th of May, 1974, Nimmons received the news that the great Duke Ellington had passed away. Nimmons had had the good fortune of meeting and spending some time with Ellington, and he recalls, ―He was an amazing individual. He was very suave with the ladies. He used to say such things as ‗Dawling, love you madly,‘‖ a characteristic of Ellington that Nimmons incorporated into the title of the piece that he dedicated in his honour. EEE-Suave is an extended work that utilizes several forms with a great variety of tempo variations. It is quite demanding for an ensemble. The three Es in the title stand for Enter, Exit, and Enter: he enters life; he exists life; he enters afterlife. The Atlantic Suite is by far Phil Nimmons‘ most popular and successful composition. In 1975, Nimmons convinced the Canada Council to provide a grant for Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six to tour, by creating a new composition that could be featured on the tour. The Atlantic Suite is a large-scale, four-movement work that was inspired by the eastern region of Canada. ―Harbours‖ is the title of the first movement, and it represents the harbours of the Bedford Basin, which Nimmons had become quite familiar with through his many trips to the region. The islands of Prince Edward Island inspired the title of the second movement, ―Islands.‖ The third movement was inspired by a sight Nimmons witnessed on the head of the Bay of Fundy. Following a concert in Moncton, the band had dinner at a restaurant called Cy‘s, which was known for its lobster. It was in the evening, the night sky was changing form daylight to twilight, and as the tide

46 retreated, the bottom of the ocean would show, exposing all sorts of dips and slides. The imprints in the sand changed colour as the light changed. Thus, this image inspired the third title, ―Tides.‖ A trip to Cape Spear, Newfoundland—the easternmost part of North AmEricha—inspired the title of the final movement, ―Horizons.‖ Nimmons remembers, ―I stood there and watched the waves come from miles away, and by the time they got to where I was, they were about 25 feet high, it just impressed me, the power.‖ Each movement is written in a different style and mood. Nimmons wanted to use the word ‗east‘ in choosing the keys for each movement, by using a mixture of pitches and the solfege system: the first movement, Harbours, would be written in the key of E; Islands in the key of A; Tides in the key of G (from the solfege So); and the final movement, Horizons, in the key of B (from the solfege Ti). Nimmons mixed the solfege up in the third movement, however, which he actually composed in the key of F for Fa, thus spelling EAFT. In addition to becoming the first recipient of the Juno Award for Music Excellence in Jazz, Nimmons was also the very first recipient of the Toronto Arts Award in 1976, where he was acknowledged for ―Creative Excellence in Music and his contribution to Canadian Culture.‖ The CBC approached Nimmons in 1976 to compose a piece for UNESCO‘s World Music Week for the United Nations. Transformations was the first composition where the music generated itself as opposed to being inspired by subject or a theme. Nimmons used a four-pitch tone row as source material for the composition. The pitches B and C symbolized Before Christ, while the pitches A and D signified Anno Domini. The title Transformations refers to Nimmons‘ treatment of the four-pitch tone row as he employs them through various moods and styles. The overall structure of the work more closely resembles sonata form. This was Nimmons‘ largest composition; it is made up of five movements and is forty-five minutes in length. Transformations was premiered by Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six at the Ontario Science Centre. That same year, the Canadian Olympic Committee commissioned Nimmons to write a piece for the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Montreal. Nimmons titled the work Invocation, which derives from attempts to invoke all of the greatest things that help athletes to achieve victory during the Olympics. The work consists of three movements:

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―Gold,‖ ―Silver,‖ and ―Bronze.‖ The first movement, ―Gold,‖ is subtitled ―Challenge‖; ―Silver‖ is subtitled ―Prayer‖; and ―Bronze‖ is subtitled ―The Contest.‖ Palette a Deux is a classical piece, which Nimmons wrote for saxophone for the occasion of the Saxophone Congress held at the University of Toronto. The piece was commissioned by saxophonist, Jerry Toth, a member of Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine, who premiered the work at the Congress. The piece for alto saxophone included a great amount of written material, including a section for the soloist to improvise, exploring both the jazz and classical idioms. The work was written for alto saxophone, four trombones, a guitar, bass, and drums. The piece St. Pierre et Miquelon was inspired by a second tour taken by Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six in 1978. The group went on tour to the Atlantic Provinces, including a visit to St. Pierre, which belonged to France. Upon their return, Nimmons had the idea to write St. Pierre et Miquelon. Both pieces are extended works that were composed with several of the band members in mind as featured soloists. They are in ¾ time with the rhythm of the melody sounding St. Pierre et Miquelon. Ros is a work for big band, featuring a trombone part that was written as a tribute to the memory of . Rosolino was a great trombone player whom Nimmons had hired to be part of the faculty at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Originally Nimmons had booked Rob McConnell to join the resident quartet, which already consisted of Ed Bickert, Pat LaBarbera, and Moe Koffman. However, Nimmons received a phone call from McConnell saying that he was not able to make the appointment, and the only substitute he managed to find was Frank Rosolino. Rosolino had played with many of the great bands from the big band era, most notably the Stan Kenton Orchestra. This was the first and only time Nimmons and Rosolino ever met, and unfortunately, soon after his return to California from the Banff Centre, Rosolino committed suicide. The piece begins with a free ad lib opening on the piano with rolled eighth-notes, in a slow ¾ tempo. The piece continues with a blues feel evoking the feeling of losing a great musician. The work was premiered in 1979 with Dave McMurdo as the trombone soloist.

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The Late 1980s

In 1986, the CBC commissioned Nimmons to write a classical composition for the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Mario Bernardi. Plateaus: Cariboo Country Tone Poem was written for a small chamber orchestra employing two trumpets. For this piece, Nimmons drew inspiration from his hometown of Kamloops, B.C., as well as deriving some of the intervals from the numbers in his birthday. That same year, Nimmons wrote Skyscape: Sleeping Beauty and the Lions for the 1986 Expo held in Vancouver. The work was premiered at the event. Similar to Plateaus, it was born from the idea of growing up in that region. In Vancouver, one can look north and see the mountain range and their surfaces, a range of shapes with such names as Sleeping Beauty; and the Lions, because of two peaks resembling the ears on a female lioness. Two years later, in 1988, the Canadian Olympic Committee once again approached Nimmons with a commission to compose a work for the 1988 Olympic Winter Games, which was held in Calgary, Alberta. The Torch, a one-movement jazz work was premiered in Calgary, Alberta, performed by a group of Canadian jazz musicians who were between the ages of 20 and 25, with Rob McConnell conducting the orchestra. The ending of the piece is a free section, which allows the whole band to simply wail or cheer as one might do in the event of winning. The same year Nimmons wrote three more major works, the first one being Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra. The concerto was commissioned by the Kitchener- Waterloo Symphony and was funded by the Ontario Arts Council and the Laidlaw Foundation. The world premiere of this piece was performed by Dan Warren and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, conducted by Raffi Armenian, and recorded by the CBC. Dan Warren had been a student of Nimmons at the University of Toronto, and had played in the jazz orchestra that Nimmons directed before becoming second trumpet with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony after graduation. The second of the three pieces written in 1988 was Bach in My Own Backyard. The work was commissioned by the Sharon Music Festival and was funded by the

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Canada Arts Council.57 Nimmons was commissioned to take Bach‘s musical offering and write a piece in his style. The two composers incorporated a blues feel into the music, giving it the title Bach in My Own Backyard. The piece was premiered in Sharon, Ontario. The third of these three pieces was commissioned by the CBC for the duo Pendulum. Pianist Jim Hodgkinson and vibraphonist Ted Piltzecker both excelled as great improvisers, and in order to showcase their skills, Nimmons composed Twosum, a Concerto for Piano and Vibraphone; a classical composition that contains an improvisatory section. Pendulum gave the world premiere performance in Saint John, New Brunswick. Twosum has been quite popular among students at the University of Toronto, who have performed it on several occasions.

Compositions in the Later Years

Riverscape: St. John Portrait was commissioned by the Fredericton High School and was funded by the Canada Council.58 The world premiere performance took place at the Tom Morrison Theater at Fredericton High School, in May 1994 and was performed by the Fredericton High School Concert Band. Riverscape: St. John Portrait was created for a concert band and was inspired by the Saint John River.59 Nimmons had been familiar with the landscape of Saint John from his time spent in New Brunswick while working at Chamber Music and All That Jazz. Of Moods and Contrasts: A Sound Poem was a composition commissioned in 1994 by the Esprit Orchestra, which is a Toronto-based orchestra performing contemporary music.60 Of Moods and Contrasts is a classical composition filled with

57 Phil Nimmons. Bach in My Own Backyard. Musical Score. Toronto: Nimmons ‗N‘ Music. 1988.

58 Phil Nimmons. Riverscape: St. John Portrait. Score. Toronto: Nimmons ‗N‘ Music. 1994.

59 Phil Nimmons. Curriculum Vitae, January 2010. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, Chalmers House.

60 Phil Nimmons. Of Moods and Contrasts. Score. Toronto: Nimmons ‗N‘ Music. 1994.

50 jazz overtones, which is reflected in the title. According to Nimmons, in retrospect he feels that there may be too much variety in the whole piece, which could be more cohesive, and he has considered re-scoring a few sections. (At this writing, however, he has not yet gotten around to it.) Conversations: Aural Communication was Nimmons‘ last large-scale work, which he completed in 2006. In November of 2005, Nimmons received a phone call from Paul Read, who had been the Canadian Representative to the International Association for Jazz Educators (IAJE). Read informed Nimmons that SOCAN, along with IAJE Canada, was creating the SOCAN/IAJE Phil Nimmons Established Composer Award. Each year, a new Canadian jazz composer would be chosen to receive the award for creating a new work for jazz ensemble—which would be premiered at the IAJE Annual Conference—as well as a scholarship in the amount of $5000. Paul Read notified Nimmons that he would be the very first recipient of the award. Nimmons‘ composition was to be written for the Dave McMurdo Jazz Orchestra (DMJO), who premiered the work on January 14, 2006, at the IAJE Annual Conference in New York City. Nimmons was under pressure to meet the deadline for completion and to allow time for rehearsals, and so he created all the sketches, the master score, and all of the parts in only three weeks. Mike Murley, who performed baritone saxophone at the premier, recalled: ―The high quality of Conversations was mind blowing.‖61 Nimmons has had a long association with the DMJO and had been quite familiar with the members of the ensemble, both as musicians and good friends. Many of the musicians are wonderful soloists, so Nimmons anticipated that it would be a challenge to have them represented in the work. As Nimmons began work on the introductory material, which features several solos, the idea of conversation between the musical lines played by each soloist surfaced unexpectedly. This concept then became the fundamental idea that would govern the direction and development of the work. Nimmons describes in his liner notes: ―Each soloist has his own character, quality or style of improvising and, as a result, there is great potential for much variety in moods and expression. The soloists were used both as features and as interacting commentators ... dialoguing with one

61 Mike Murley, Telephone Interview, November 6, 2011.

51 another, with various sections of the band and with the entire band ... sometimes resulting in conversational chaos. The final analysis, none of this is possible without the listener as part of the equation, thus the subtitle ‗Aural Communication.‘ This is part of the art form that exists because we have ears and sounds.‖62

James Campbell and Works for Clarinet

While growing up in Alberta, Canada, clarinetist James Campbell had been influenced by Nimmons‘ playing, which he had heard on radio broadcasts. In 1984, their unique relationship began to blossom as Nimmons became motivated to write pieces for Campbell. Duologue for clarinet and accordion was commissioned by Campbell for a performance at the Festival of the Sound, in Parry Sound, Ontario, where Campbell was and still is the artistic director. Campbell was aware that Nimmons had been writing for accordion for many years because Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine had an accordion player. Nimmons pursued a contrast of style and mood throughout the piece, exploiting the tremendous techniques of accordionist Joe Macerollo and of James Campbell himself. Aware of the potential in what a clarinet and an accordion can do, Nimmons used kind of a tone-row idea of only eight pitches (Bb-A-B-C-Ab-G-C#-D) as the source material for Duologue. Currently, there is a version for flute and accordion as well. In 1985, Nimmons followed up with a sequel to Duologue titled PS42Js. Having four notes still left over (F-Gb-E-Eb) from the source material for Duologue, Nimmons used these remaining pitches as source material for his new composition. Having been impressed with the results of the first piece, Nimmons wrote PS42Js gratis. The title stands for Post Script 4 (for) 2 (two) Js (James and Jim). The music was not developed on the basis of any character assessment of Campbell or Macerollo. Writing these two duets, Nimmons found it more interesting to write for the accordion than when he wrote accordion parts for Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine; with Duologue and PS42Js, his only aim was to exploit the skills of two fine instrumentalists.

62 Phil Nimmons. Glenn Gould Concert Series. Toronto: Glenn Gould Studio. December 5, 2006.

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In 1988, Nimmons wrote another piece for Campbell, a piece for clarinet and piano: Images Entre Nous, meaning ―between this piece and the audience‖ or ―between the performers and the audience.‖ Nimmons explains his notion, ―Everybody and anybody, composer and audience, can have a ball with their own images. Sometimes I have been reluctant to write liner notes because it seems so contrived.‖ Images Entre Nous was premiered in Fredericton, New Brunswick. This single-movement, through- composed work displays elements of both jazz and classical idioms. Both the clarinet and piano parts are of equal importance. The opening introduction section is very expressive and reflective in nature; it is marked Freely & Expressively, and displays interchanging phrases between the clarinet and the piano. The second section begins with a swinging 9/8 which reflects Nimmons‘ jazz background. He uses extended tertian chords, common in jazz, such as Eb-6-#9 and Eb-b7-#9 chords in a four-bar introduction before the clarinet enters with a swinging melody. This pattern of alternating between the smooth, classical and swinging, syncopated jazz phrases continues throughout the entire piece, culminating in an energetic conclusion. Time Revisited was composed in 2010 in memory of Nimmons‘ late wife, Noreen, and their marriage of fifty-two years.63 When he completed Images Entre Nous in the late 1980s Nimmons once jokingly said to Campbell that he would next write a piece that he would not be able to play. Over the following fifteen years, Campbell would frequently ask, ―How is the piece going?‖ Campbell phoned Nimmons in the early part of 2010 and mentioned that he would be doing a concert in the Edward Johnson Building at the University of Toronto for the Women‘s Music Club, and that it would be nice to have that clarinet piece written for the event. Nimmons got to work right away, composing the greater part of the work soon after the end of the 2009–2010 academic year at the university, which allowed him more time to concentrate on composing. At the time of Noreen‘s passing in 2002, a theme arose within Nimmons that stayed with him for almost nine years.

63 Phil Nimmons. Music in the Afternoon. Toronto: Women‘s Musical Club of Toronto. November 25, 2010.

53

Noreen used to say that their marriage was a trio rather than a couple, since every time the couple travelled or went on holidays, the clarinet always came along. ―With this in mind, I thought of the piano as Noreen, the composition as myself, and James Campbell as the ubiquitous, ever-present clarinet ... thus, the inevitable trio.‖64 Time Revisited opens dramatically, representing the way one is emotionally affected by losing a loved one. The opening emphasizes the ‗E‘ note, which is to be played passionately, right at the start on the piano with some dissonant chords. The motifs in the opening sections were based on the date of the couple‘s marriage, July 5, 1950, and the fifty-two years they were married. July being the seventh month and the day being the fifth gave Nimmons the intervals of a 7th and a 5th, and their marriage of fifty-two years gave the intervals of a 5th and a 2nd. These two interval relationships were used to develop the melody. Nimmons had also written pieces for Noreen and for each of their three children, and he took melodic quotes from these pieces to be incorporated into this work. Liëse, Noreen‘s middle name, was a piece made up of two contrasting movements, which was meant to represent (to a certain extent) her personality. Holly was written for their eldest daughter; Carey Dance for their second daughter, Carey; and Night, Night Smiley for their son, Spencer. Time Revisited moves through an assortment of moods and emotions as the elements of one‘s family life is interpreted aurally. Nimmons also incorporated overtones of jazz throughout and a section that allows for improvisation. The closing theme in ¾ is the melody that has been with Nimmons since the death of Noreen in 2002. It starts quietly and builds to a dramatic and climax, which relates to the opening dynamically but differs in character, with a quality of refined consummation. Time Revisited was premiered at the University of Toronto on November 25, 2010, and was performed by James Campbell on clarinet and Paul Stewart on piano for the Women‘s Musical Club of Toronto. The AmErichan premiere was performed by Daniel Hasznos on April 13, 2011, in Dohnanyi Recital Hall at Florida State University.

64 Ibid.

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Music for the Cinema

In 1957, Sydney J. Furie approached Nimmons to compose the music for the film A Dangerous Age. Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine also recorded the entire score for the film. Though the film did not have much commercial success, it was aired on public television from Buffalo two years following the completion of the film. In 1959, the film A Cool Sound from Hell was written with a jazzy flavour in mind. The male lead was a tenor saxophone player, and was given the nickname ―The Tenor Man.‖ Nimmons wrote the musical theme for the character, which was a saxophone solo with the title, Steve’s Theme, after the character‘s name. In 1961 Paul Almond, a CBC producer, approached Nimmons to compose a complete movie score for the movie Power By Proxy. This is the only complete movie score that Nimmons has ever written. In 1974, Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six performed every weekend at the amphitheater at Ontario Place. During that time, Oscar Peterson was approached by Len Casey, a CBC producer, to write the thematic music for a film about northern Ontario, titled Big North Ontario. Nimmons was then hired to orchestrate Peterson‘s theme. The film was only twenty minutes in length and consisted of a mixture of slides and images of northern Ontario. It went on to be featured at the amphitheater at Ontario Place.

Compositional Approach

Phil Nimmons‘ approach to composition stems from his clarinet playing. His compositions are created first as if he were playing an improvised solo on the clarinet. Usually he does not begin with an overall plan; however, he does seek to find a motif that he can develop through his creative process. Once a motif is developed, the entire work evolves. Nimmons believes that the true essence of a good composition is form. Not a sonata form or a rondo form, but something that is more simple and organic; basically, a contrast between tension and resolution. Nimmons relates it to life; day and night and night and day. He was largely influenced by a book that was introduced to him while studying composition at the Senior School at the RCM. The Shaping Forces in Music, written by Ernst Toch, discussed the creative process, and this work is where Nimmons

55 found his definition. Many great composers have these very concepts present in their compositions. According to Nimmons, ―Contrast can manifest itself in zillion ways … It is similar to going down a road, and you see something that really struck you and you stop and look at it. This is what happens in some of my compositions.‖65

65 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 23, 2010.

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CONCLUSION

Fig. 5. Phil Nimmons performing at Humber College in Toronto in the late 1990s.

Phil Nimmons has spent his entire life cultivating jazz in Canada. His love for his homeland encouraged him to stay in Canada, bringing jazz into the spotlight. Nimmons has expressed this notion by saying, ―I believe in this country … in the talent that is here.‖66 His performances through various media, along with his interaction with students and people across the nation, not only impacted the lives of those who came into contact with him but also allowed him to experience a musical journey that has spanned almost eighty years. As he humbly expressed, he views his career as the most incredible learning experience one can only wish for. On July 3, 2011, McGill University awarded Phil Nimmons with an honorary Doctor of Music degree in Montreal, giving him his first official music degree, which he has rightfully earned through his generous contribution to the musical culture that exists in Canada today, largely due to his efforts.

66 Phil Nimmons, Personal Interview, December 30, 2010.

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APPENDIX A

PUBLISHED COMPOSITIONS

Compositions for Jazz Ensemble

A Cool Sound From Hell A Dangerous Age Anniversary Arf Asarully Atlantic Suite Back on the Bus Bagtime Ballad Ballad # 1 Bass-ically Yours Birdburger Blues Blow Blues for Meetin’ Blues for Someone Blues for Someone Else Blues for Walter Hall Blues-ex Bob’s Your Uncle Brassly Speaking Bubble Touble Bugaboo Build Up Carey Dance Chops Chips and Gravy Closing Titles Blues Clothing Titles Blues Come What May Conversations (Aural Communications) Did You Say Dig Do I Know You? Easy Baby Ed’s Up Ed’s Comp EEE-Suave Eh Jam Blues Episode Etude Crusher

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Exactly Like Jerry Smith Fancey Dancey Far Fenelon Valse Finkleman’s Cave Footsteps Friends Departed Go Trane Gone With the Blues Groove Herbs Here They Are Hey Rood Holly Holly Dance Horns a Pleny Howlin’ Marsh Humpy I Love to Play I See The Blues Before Me I Told You So In a Minor Mood Invocation It Sounds Like You It’s Up to You Jack’s to Open Jasper Just for Now Just Us, Just Fun, Just Kicks Kernel Strange Kicks Later Now Liëse Lip Flap Little Big Blues Little Father Little Poppy Maybe Baby MJQ Mod’s Mode Movie A Movie E Movie F Movie H Movie K Movie T Mr. Big Mrs. Big Blues Muggs Muse the Blues My Name, Who Cares?

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New Kicks Night, Night, Smiley Night Crawler Noodles for Momma Nosey Not Soon Enough Nufsicisum On the Autobahn One for Mr. B One Long Song One More for Baby One O Nine Opal Participation (There, Here, Where) People Make The World Quest Phil Not Bill Phlip’s Trip Poly-Rock Power By Proxy Rhumba Pseudo Rickshaw Room At The Back Room In The Front Ros Sands (Of Time) Sarah Shadows Simple Treasures Something Else SneakySometime Somewhere Every Summer Real Kicklets Some Others Squatter’s Rites Squeeze Play Squits Sussex Drive St. Pierre et Miquelon Step Right In Steve’s Theme Strollin’ Easy Suite P.E.I. Sweets Swing and Lovely Swingin’t the Jugs Takin’ Over The Dorian Way The Trojan Women The Thirty Blues The Torch

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Think Nice Thoughts Three & Four Three and Easy Threeful Times Passed Tipsy Toctet Transformations Town

Classical Compositions

A Little Black Man for Voice and Piano Adventures in Rainbow Country Bach in My Own Backyard Celebration Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra Duologue for Clarinet and Accordion Friendly Encounter Images Entre Nous for Clarinet and Piano Interlude for Viola and Piano Of Moods and Contrasts (A Sound Poem) Opus UNB Palette a Deux Parting for Voice and Piano Piano Sonata Piano Toccata Plateaus (Cariboo Country Tone Poem) Prelude of the Sound PS42JS for Clarinet and Accordion Riverscape for Concert Band Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet Skyscape (Sleeping Beauty and the Lions) Sources Suite for Piano and Big Band Suite St. John’s Summer Rain Time Revisited for Clarinet and Piano Tribute Twosum for Percussion and Piano

Compositions of Phil Nimmons are Published by:

Nimmons ‘N’ Music Ltd. 114 Babcombe Drive, Thornhill, Ontario L3T 1N1 Canad

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APPENDIX B

DISCOGRAPHY

Beginnings, Nimmons ‗N‘ Music, 2005.

Canadian Composer’s Portraits: Phil Nimmons; Perfromed by the Dave McMurdo Jazz Orchestra, Canadian Music Centre, 2007.

Friendly Encounters, Marquis Classics, 2009.

Mary Poppins Swings, RCA Victor, 1964.

Nimmons Now, CBC Records, 1970.

Nimmons ‘N’ Nine, RCA Victor, 1963.

Sands of Time-The Phil Nimmons Quartet, Sackville Records, 2001.

Strictly Nimmons, RCA Victor, 1965.

Suite P.E.I., CBC Records, 1973.

Take Ten, RCA Victor, 1963.

The Atlantic Suite, Sackville Records, 1975.

The Atlantic Suite, Suite P.E.I., and Tributes; Double CD, Sackville Records, 1996.

The Canadiana Suite Via The Phil Nimmons Group, Verve, 1959.

Transformations/Invocations, CBC Records, 1976.

Vintage Nimmons ‘N’ Nine: Air Checks 1959-1964, Sackville Records, 2003.

62

REFERENCES

Personal Interviews

Murley, Mike. Telehphone Interview. 6 Novemeber, 2011.

Nimmons, Phil. Personal Interview. 15, 20, 23, 28, 30 December, 2010.

Traugott, Erich. Telephone Interview. 6 November, 2011.

News Paper and Magazine Articles

Baeyer, Jakob von. ―Keeping Up The Tempo.‖ National Post. 30 October, 2002.

Chapman, Geoff. ―Bandleader Gets His Due: Veteran jazz musician Phil Nimmons Scores World Honour.‖ The Toronto Star, March 3, 2001. J2.

Chapman, Geoff. ―March tribute will honour Nimmons: Sounds of Toronto also features Time Warp, Kollage.‖ The Toronto Star, July 30, 2002.

Flohil, Richard. ―The Big Band beat of Phil Nimmons.‖ Performing Arts, Fall 1978: 45-47. Gallagher, Greg. ―Phil Nimmons.‖ The Music Scene, July-August 1976: 17-18.

McNamara, Helen. ―Phil Nimmons ‗N‘ Nine Plus Six.‖ International Musician, Dec. 1972.

Walker, Marlene. ―Phil Nimmons Jazzes It Up.‖ The Toronto Star. 10 September 1995.

Waxman, Ken. ―Phil Nimmons a Part of Stage Band Festivals.‖ The Music Scene, Sept.–Oct. 1978.

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Archival Resources

Banff Centre for the Arts. Jazz Concerts. Banff: Banff Centre for the Arts Program. July 25, 1998.

Nimmons, Phil. Music in the Afternoon. Toronto: Women‘s Musical Club of Toronto. November 25, 2010.

Nimmons, Phil. Glenn Gould Concert Series. Toronto: Glenn Gould Studio. December 5, 2006.

Nimmons, Phil. Curriculum Vitae, January 2010. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, Chalmers House.

Encyclopedias and Books

Ginsberg, Murray. ―They Loved to Play.‖ Memories of the Golden Age in Canadian Music. Toronto: Venture Press, 1998. 153-155.

Jewison, Norman. This Terrible Business has Been Good to Me: An Autobiography. Toronto: Key Porter Book Ltd., 2004.

Kallman, Helmut. Edited by Gilles Potvin & Kenneth Winters. ―Phil Nimmons.‖ Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.

McHose, Allen Irvine. The Contrapuntal Technique of the 18th Century. Prentice Hall- Eastman School of Music Series, 1947.

Miller, Mark. ―Such Melodious Racket.‖ The Lost History of Jazz in Canada. Toronto: The Mercury Press, 1997.

Robinson, Ken P.h.D. and Lou Aronica. The Element:How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. U.S.A.: Viking Penguin, 2009.

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Musical Scores

Nimmons, Phil. Bach in My Own Backyard. Musical Score. Toronto: Nimmons ‗N‘ Music. 1988.

Nimmons, Phil. Riverscape: St. John Portrait. Musical Score. Toronto: Nimmons ‗N‘ Music. 1994.

Nimmons, Phil. Of Moods and Contrasts:A Sound Poem. Musical Score. Toronto: Nimmons ‗N‘ Music. 1994.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Hungarian born Canadian clarinetist Daniel Hasznos is an active performer and educator. He has performed extensively as a recitalist and chamber musician throughout Canada and the , as well as making his European debut in Budapest with the Pulzus String Quartet in 2007. As a recipient of several awards, he has won numerous prizes at such competitions as the Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival, the Oshawa-Whitby Kiwanis Music Festival, the Pickering Rotary Music Festival, Pickering GTA Music Festival, Peel Music Festival, Canadian Music Competition, and the Tallahassee Music Guild. As an educator, Dr. Hasznos has given master classes at such institutions as Sir Wilfred Laurier University, University of Florida, University of Central Florida, and Florida State University. He has also been an active clinician providing workshops throughout the Greater Toronto Area at various high school and elementary school music programs. Dr. Hasznos holds a master and doctorate degrees from Florida State University, where he studied under Frank Kowalsky and Deborah Bish, and a bachelor degree from the University of Toronto, where he studied under Joaquin Valdapenas.

66